For lobbyists and government affairs

What we ask for

• Every jurisdiction you are registered in — federal under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, and each state separately, with the registration number for each.
• How you are registered — in-house, contract lobbyist at a firm, sole practitioner, non-profit staff, or below the registration threshold.
• Your current clients.

We check each registration against the public filing: federal numbers against the House and Senate disclosure databases, state numbers against that state's own register.

Why we ask for your clients

Conflict, and nothing else. Someone already retained by a corrections vendor should not be working our prison-conditions campaign, and the whole purpose of the disclosure regime is that this is knowable rather than discovered later. Your client list is not published on this site.

If your activity falls below the registration threshold in your state, say so — that is a real and common position, and the form has an option for it. Do not invent a number.

The 501(c)(3) constraint, stated plainly

We are a 501(c)(3). A charity may lobby, but only within limits: under the default "no substantial part" test, lobbying that becomes a substantial part of our activities puts the exemption at risk. An organisation can instead elect the section 501(h) expenditure test, which replaces that vague standard with hard ceilings and requires reporting on Form 990 Schedule C.

So there is a line this site tracks carefully, and you should know which side of it you are on. Being a lobbyist who is a member of this organisation is not lobbying on our behalf. The second one is a separate, deliberate designation that an administrator makes, and it is the activity that gets counted and reported. We will tell you explicitly if we ever want to move you across that line, and nothing you do here puts you across it by accident.

Your own registration and reporting obligations remain yours. We are not your compliance department, and nothing here is advice on your filings.