Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Stealth Lobbyist Disclosure Act of 2007

Roll Call ($$) chronicles Representative Lloyd Doggett's (D-TX) long running fight to require that coalitions must disclose its members, providing that the coalition employs other persons to conduct its lobbying activities. Coalitions have become a viable way for corporate interests to engage in single-issue campaigns, and sometimes avoiding transparency rules.

Rep. Doggett (D-Texas) was new to the Ways and Means Committee in 2000 when he began to notice a pattern that troubled him: Many of the groups lobbying the panel for tax breaks had seemingly innocuous names but would not disclose who was funding them. Over the next two years, one such group, the Section 877 Coalition, shelled out $940,000 to protect tax breaks for wealthy people who give up their U.S. citizenship. Another, the Council for Energy Independence, worked to preserve a synthetic fuel credit worth billions of dollars to a select group of manufacturers

The article reports that full membership was not made public of the most expensive lobbying campaigns during the last Congress. Doggett has introduced versions of the Stealth Lobbyist Disclosure Act of 2007 (HR 804), in the last three congresses. The bill is expected to be apart of a larger legislative measure. Such legislation would enhance lobbying disclosure.