Thursday, April 05, 2007

"Turf Battle"

An article in the National Journal ($$) explains the position of OMB Watch in the struggle to get a grassroots lobbying disclosure provision in the House lobby reform bill that has yet to be introduced. An approach that strictly requires grassroots firms to disclose is discriminatory in that only one type of group is targeted. All who equally engage in grassroots lobbying should report, this way the public will benefit by getting the most useful information.

OMB Watch, on the other hand, wants the House bill to cover not just outside firms hired by clients to run grassroots campaigns but all entities that must register under existing lobbying rules and that spend a certain threshold amount on grassroots activities, said Kay Guinane, OMB Watch's director of nonprofit speech rights.