Bluegrass rural pac issued the following announcement on Oct 15.
Two years after the 2017 report that examined the continued practice of ‘shadow lobbying,’ researcher Dan Auble and journalist Karl Evers-Hillstrom are taking another in-depth look at the world of lobbying in President Donald Trump’s Washington.
While OpenSecrets.org has long been the go-to resource for lobbying data at the federal level, there is only so much straight data can reveal. Several loopholes in the Lobbying Disclosure Act allow top executives and other key players to get by without registering as a federal lobbyist. This can leave some or all of a lobbying operation’s details hidden from the public.
This practice can extend to former members of Congress. Since the end of the 111th Congress, 176 former members of Congress have taken a spin through the revolving door to enter the world of advocacy. Of the 32 senators to go into the world of buying and selling influence, only 13 have registered as lobbyists. House members are more likely to register, with 55 percent of the 144 former representatives registering as a lobbyist.
Despite repeated calls for reform from activists and from within the lobbying industry itself, Congress has yet to make substantial changes to the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
“Our current lobbying disclosure rules have become an obstacle to transparency, leaving the American public in the dark about how influential forces attempt to shape federal policy,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. “The time to revisit the rules and close the lobbying loopholes that are so commonly exploited is long past due.”
Original source here.
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