Lobbying Disclosure Guidelines
Foundations of Lobbying Disclosure
What Needs to be Disclosed
- 3. Information about Organizations that Lobby
- 4. Personal and Employment Information of Lobbyists
- 5. Lobbying Object
Lobbying Disclosure Guidelines
Foundations of Lobbying Disclosure
What Needs to be Disclosed
- 3. Information about Organizations that Lobby
- 4. Personal and Employment Information of Lobbyists
- 5. Lobbying Objectives and Clients
- 6. Information about Lobbying Contacts
- 7. Lobbying Expenditures
How Information Should be Collected and Made Public
- 8. Timely and Online Reporting and Disclosure
- 9. Free, Open, and Reusable Data
- 10. Unique Identifiers
Enforcement and Oversight
Lobbying, broadly defined, is an effort by an individual or group to influence the decisions of any branch of government through direct contact with decision-makers. At its best, lobbying should support government decision makers in order to allow them to make more informed choices. Unfortunately, when lobbying represents only one side of an issue, or when lobbyists misrepresent the facts or the position of the public, decision-making by government institutions may be flawed.
To fix the process, information about lobbying must be disclosed. Disclosure provides the context essential to understand the political decision-making and the legislative process, empowering government decision-makers and the public to evaluate the messages and track the influence of lobbyists. An effective lobbying transparency system will ensure that the activities of lobbyists — who they represent, what they want, and who they are targeting — are fully and meaningfully disclosed.
Robust disclosure allows civil society tools to convert lobbying information into helpful narratives, making it easier for individuals to understand the dynamics of the decision-making process, and thus strengthening public oversight of lobbying.
The Sunlight Foundation has created these guidelines to help policymakers and advocates improve lobbying disclosure and provide a meaningful check and balance on the world of influence. This guide addresses direct lobbying efforts.
Foundations of Lobbying Disclosure
1 Lobbyist Definition
The term ‘‘lobbyist’’ refers to any individual who, as a part of his or her employment or for other compensation, engages in more than one lobbying contact (oral and written communication, including electronic communication) with an elected official, his or her staff, or high and mid-ranking government employee who exercises public power or public authority, for the purpose of influencing the formulation, modification, adoption, or administration of legislation, rules, spending decisions, or any other government program, policy, or position.
Defining who constitutes a lobbyist, what is considered lobbying activity, and who might be a target of lobbying are critical components of an effective lobbying transparency regulation. The definition we offer here is relatively broad so as to capture all who lobby professionally, but narrow enough to avoid other actors who wish to influence public policy but are not compensated for direct lobbying or not contacting elected officials. And while our definition of a lobbyist excludes many activities related to the influence industry — such as PR, grassroot activism, journalism, etc. — experience shows that lobbying regulation might get more buy-in when the scope is limited to direct contact with decision-makers and professional lobbying. Moreover, such activities should be disclosed in lobbying reports as expenditures when they are related to lobbying campaigns.
In many countries, overly broad or narrow definitions of the term lobbyist seem to have critically weakened or impeded lobbying transparency. For example, Australia’s lobbying regulation states that a lobbyist is any individual who lobbies on behalf of a third party client or whose employees conduct lobbying activities on behalf of a third party client. This definition seems to miss in-house lobbyists and individuals who lobby on their own behalf. On the other hand, overly broad definitions (especially in newly introduced regulations) might be condemned because of concerns that they un