The Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House released revised HLOGA and LDA guidance recently and the document is available here.  What’s new or different?

This revision has been written based upon comments received in the last six months and issues that have arisen as a result of the Secretary’s and Clerk’s statutory and administrative responsibilities.

Section 4: Lobbying Registration

Language concerning the registration requirements for foreign entities has been expanded to include guidance for the reporting of foreign affiliates.

Section 6: Quarterly Reporting of Lobbying Activities

The TAR code has been added for tariff bills, including miscellaneous tariff bills. An example of the format for reporting specific issues (Line 16 of LD-2) under that code has been incorporated from the websites into the Guidance.

The section further delineates what expenses must be included in the “good faith estimate” of lobbying expenses on LD-2.

Additional information relating to Line 19 of LD-2 is included.

Section 7: Semiannual Reporting of Certain Contributions

Language regarding in-kind contributions has been added to the first bullet on FECA contributions to reflect that all payments that fall under the definition of contribution under the FECA (to Federal candidates, federal political party committees and leadership PACs) must be disclosed on LD-203.

Section 7 has been modified to show that the entire amount paid for an event to honor a covered official must be disclosed, rather than carving out an allocated portion of the payment.

Section 8: Termination of a Lobbyist/Termination of a Registrant

The June 2009 notices regarding the circumstances under which a registrant may remove a lobbyist from its active lobbyist list has been incorporated into this section.