Law to Curb Lobbying Sends It Underground

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, New York Times

WASHINGTON — Ellen Miller, co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation, has spent years arguing for rules to force more disclosure of how lobbyists and private interests shape public policy. Until recently, she herself registered as a lobbyist, too, publicly reporting her role in the group’s advocacy of even more reporting. Not anymore.

In light of strict new regulations imposed by Congress over the last two years, Ms. Miller joined a wave of policy advocates who are choosing not to declare themselves as lobbyists.

“I have never spent much time on Capitol Hill,” Ms. Miller said, explaining that she only supervises those who press lawmakers directly. “I am not lobbying, so why fill out the forms?”

Her frankness makes Ms. Miller a standout among hundreds of others who are making the same decision. Though Washington’s influence business is by all accounts booming, a growing number of its practitioners are taking a similar course to avoid the spotlight of public disclosure.

“All the increasing restrictions on lobbyists are a disincentive to be a lobbyist, and those who think they can deregister are eagerly doing so,” said Jan Baran, a veteran political lawyer who has been fielding questions from clients hoping to escape registration. “It is creating some apparent contradictions.”

Before the new rules, the number of advocates who registered as lobbyists appeared to have grown steadily, peaking in late 2007. A tally by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics (another group founded by Ms. Miller) put the count at about 13,200. The number fell by nearly 2,000 by the fall of last year.

The falloff began shortly after Congress passed a sweeping ethics and lobbying law that imposed on registered lobbyists both heavier reporting requirements and potential criminal penalties. The law required lobbyists to report four times a year instead of two, and to detail any campaign contributions and certain meetings with public officials. The law also made it a crime for registered lobbyists to provide gifts or meals to lawmakers or their aides.

But for all its penalties, the law left the definition of a lobbyist fairly elastic. The criteria included getting paid to lobby, contacting public officials about a client’s interests at least twice in a quarter and working at least 20 percent of the time on lobbying-related activities for the client.

Enforcement is also light. Lobbyists suspected of failing to file receive at least one official letter offering a chance to rectify their status before any legal action is taken.

After the rules changed, private companies and nonprofit groups immediately began to rethink their registration.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, which advocates on arms control, energy policy and environmental issues, had previously registered almost anyone who went to Capitol Hill on its behalf, said Stephen Young, a senior analyst for the group. That changed after the new law.

“We thought: ‘Hmm, this is now not such an easy thing. Let’s see if we are required to do it. We are not? Let’s take them off,’ ” he said. The group terminated the registrations of “virtually all” its former lobbyists, he said.

Lobbyists were further motivated to adopt new tactics after President Obama limited their access to meetings and to government officials. He barred administration officials from talking to registered lobbyists about any projects involving federal stimulus money. He blocked lobbyists from working on his transition or taking jobs in his administration.

Some Democrats said the president’s prohibitions had motivated them to terminate their registrations and keep lobbying below the registration threshold; all insisted on anonymity to discuss the reasons for their decision.

“Lobbying isn’t a crime,” said one recently deregistered lobbyist who is looking for a job. “It is a profession, and in my view it is an honorable one. But this administration has made a decision about who can serve and who can’t.”

Some corporate lobbyists, speaking anonymously for fear of irking the White House, said they were revising job descriptions in light of the administration’s decision to bar registered lobbyists from sitting on industry advisory panels. “Wait a minute, who is going to be on this board?” a lobbyist for a major aviation company recalled thinking. “Are we going to actively manage people to not be lobbyists?”

The pattern has set off a debate on K Street and Capitol Hill. Many lobbyists argue that the decline in registration demonstrates the unfairness of cracking down on their trade while ignoring the campaign contributors, corporate executives, union chiefs and others who seek the ears of public officials. Advocates for the rules, on the other hand, argue that they should be tighter still, with tougher enforcement.

To read the full article, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/us/politics/18lobby.html?scp=1&sq=ellen%20miller&st=cse

For more information on the Sunlight Foundation, visit: http://sunlightfoundation.com/