HLOGA Deadline Looms (Part II)

In today’s inbox is the latest helpful message from the HLOGA/LDA automated email service, almost enough to make you want to go back to bed.  Sign-up for the service here. 

March 2008
Quarterly Report Filing Reminder

The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, as amended by the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, requires those who have registered as a lobbyist to file quarterly reports with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Secretary of the U.S. Senate. The first quarterly report is due Monday, April 21, 2008, covering January 1, 2008 through March 31, 2008.

To assist filers with the new quarterly forms, the Appendix section of the Windows and Macintosh online help manuals have been updated with the following information:

o       New line by line instructions for the quarterly forms;
o       A list of federal agency names for line 17.

Please note that updates regarding the new semi-annual contribution form and lobbyist ID’s and passwords will be released in the near future.  Information on acquiring a registrant ID and password to file registrations and reports electronically, as well as helpful filing instructions, can be obtained from the House or the Senate lobbying disclosure links listed below:http://lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov                        http://www.senate.gov/lobby If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact either of the offices listed below:
House Legislative Resource Center       
202-226-5200
[email protected]
Senate Office of Public Records
[email protected]
202-224-0758

The Times Keeping it Practical?

Today’s Times editorializes on the lack of a quorum at the FEC.  This blog focuses on the pratical aspect of political law, so when the Times invokes its concerns at the “practical level,” it’s worth considering, although we do not necessarily have to agree with its conclusions.

Lacking a quorum, the commission has been left powerless to issue advisory opinions for candidates, write new reform regulations, open investigations and file lawsuits against violators. The result is a scofflaw’s paradise. The political landscape’s big-money fast lanes are slick enough without having the only traffic controller gone missing.

What this means on a practical level is that the supposed new breakthrough law called the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act is gathering cobwebs. The commission has been unavailable to write enforcement regulations for a law that could not be timelier. It requires presidential and Congressional candidates to report to the public on their lucrative bundled contributions — the large packages of multiple donations that lobbyists and other favor-seekers amass to secure out-size gratitude from candidates. If the commission ever gets back in business, the elections could be over and severe damage already done to the campaign.

The FEC has rulemaking resposibilities for a few not unimportant HLOGA rules; the rest (and vast majority) are not within the FEC’s jurisdiction or authority.