Lobbying Disclosure

The Lobbying Disclosure Act, as amended, (2 U.S.C. § 1601 et. seq., referred to hereinafter as the “LDA”) requires the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives to provide guidance and assistance on the registration and reporting of lobbying activities by organizations and individuals who make contacts with Members of Congress and staff and certain federal executive branch officials.

The LDA was amended by the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) (Public Law 110-81) and new congressional ethics rules were adopted related to gifts, travel, entertainment, and events to honor members of Congress and staff.

As a result of HLOGA, the University of Georgia has established a procedure for internal tracking and reporting of lobbying contacts. As part of this effort, the University of Georgia must also collect and report relevant costs related to lobbying activities to the nearest $10,000. This premised on a good faith effort but would include such costs as:

• Salary / benefits / overhead.
• Travel and other expenses.
• Payment to outside lobbying firms.
• An appropriate percentage of dues paid to organizations that lobby on behalf of UGA and other higher education institutions.

In order to ensure compliance with the law, there are three issues to be addressed:

1. Whether you have engaged in any lobbying contacts on behalf of UGA;
2. Whether there were any lobbying activity costs associated with such contacts; and
3. The amount of time spent lobbying (Section V below).

All of these must be reported to the University so it may accurately estimate its activities and contacts in its quarterly report. To properly capture the qualified lobbying activities of University of Georgia employees, refer to the instructions and relevant form on this site.

Who qualifies as a Lobbyist:

1. More than one “lobbying contact” with covered officials.
2. “Lobbying activities” constitute 20% or more of the services performed by that individual on behalf of his/her employer or client during any quarter.
3. The organization has “lobbying expenses” of $13,000 per quarter in the case of an employed “lobbyist” (or $3,000 per quarter if an outside lobbying firm).

Who must register?

• Organizations including universities are not themselves “lobbyists” but must register under the LDA and list any employees who meet the definition of a “lobbyist”.
• If a higher education institution hires an outside person are entity that meets the definition of a “lobbyist” – then that person or entity must register under the LDA and list the higher education institution organization as its “client”.
• Form LD-1 registration must be filed within 45 days after meeting the threshold for registration listed above.

Lobbying Contact Definition

What is a federal “lobbying contact”?

Covered contact:

Oral (phone calls or face-to-face meetings), written (letters), or electronic communications (emails) to a covered Legislative or Executive Branch Official regarding:

• Formulation, modification, or adoption of Federal legislation.
• The administration or execution of a Federal program or policy.
• Formulation, modification, or adoption of a Federal 10 rule, regulation, executive order, policy or position of the United States Government.
• The nomination or confirmation of a person subject to confirmation by the Senate.

What is NOT a “lobbying contact”?

NOT covered:

• A speech, article, publication or other material that is distributed and made available to the public through a medium of mass communication.
• A request for a meeting, a request for the status of an action, or other similar administrative request.
• Testimony given before Congress or submitted for inclusion in the public record.
• Information provided in writing in response to an oral or written request, or in response to a request for public comments in the 11 Federal Register.
• Required by subpoena or civil investigative demand.
• Written comment filed in the course of a public proceeding.
• Made by the media if the purpose is gathering and disseminating news and information to the public.

Examples of “lobbying contacts”:

Covered Individuals

Covered Legislative Branch Official

• Members of Congress.
• An elected officer of either chamber of Congress (House or Senate).
• Employees of a member, committee, leadership staff, joint committee, working group or caucus.

Covered Executive Branch Official

• The President.
• The Vice President.
• Any officer or employee in the Executive Office of the President.
• Any Executive Schedule level I – V officer or L-13 employee.
• Any member of the armed services at or above pay grade 0-7 & above.
• “Schedule C”, any officer or employee in a confidential policy advocating position and/or political appointees.

• Lobbying activities are contacts AND efforts in support of such contacts, including preparation and planning activities, research and other background work that is intended, at the time it is performed, for use in contacts and coordination with the lobbying activities of others.
• If you or someone in your unit believes they have engaged in any lobbying activity, REPORTING THIS INFORMATION IS TO THE UNIVERSITY IS A REQUIREMENT. After completing the report, you may be contacted by the Office of Federal Relations to assess whether the information is a reportable lobbying activity. Your cooperation in this important endeavor is greatly appreciated.

Our Rule:

• If a unit of the University of Georgia is part of an association that partakes in lobbying activities, on behalf of its members, and the University pays fees to that association, the unit needs to report the percentage of fees that the association used toward lobbying activities. This may require the unit to ask the association what percentage of dues were used for lobbying activities. Examples of UGA units include, but are not limited to, the UGA Graduate School, the University of Georgia School of Veterinary Medicine, and UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant. Examples of associations include, but are not limited to, Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), Sea Grant Association, and Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).
• If an individual or unit of the University of Georgia uses University funds to pay for a consultant that engages in lobbying activities on behalf of the University, they need to report the fees paid to that consultant.

Download Form to Report Lobbying Activities

• https://lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov/
• https://www.senate.gov/legislative/resources/pdf/S1guidance.pdf
• https://dar.uga.edu/policies/nodes/view/307/Federal-State-and-Local-Lobby
• http://www.ncsl.org/research/ethics/50-state-chart-lobby-definitions.aspx