I
107TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 5526
To amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to require certain coalitions
and associations to disclose their lobbying activities.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 2, 2002
Mr. DOGGETT (for himself, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. BAIRD, Mr. BARRETT of Wis-
consin, Mr. BECERRA, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. CARSON of Okla-
homa, Mr. COYNE, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. DELAHUNT,
Ms. DELAURO, Mr. EDWARDS, Mr. EVANS, Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA, Mr.
FARR of California, Mr. FILNER, Mr. FRANK, Mr. HOEFFEL, Mr. HOLT,
Mr. INSLEE, Mr. JEFFERSON, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. KLECZKA, Mr.
KUCINICH, Ms. LEE, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. LUTHER,
Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, Ms. MCCARTHY of Missouri, Mr.
MCDERMOTT, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MCNULTY, Mrs. MALONEY of New
York, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. MATSUI, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr.
NEAL of Massachusetts, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. RODRIGUEZ, Ms. ROYBAL-AL-
LARD, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. STARK, Mr. TANNER,
Mrs. THURMAN, Mr. TIERNEY, Mr. POMEROY, Mr. UDALL of New Mex-
ico, Mr. WAXMAN, Ms. WOOLSEY, and Mr. WYNN) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to require
certain coalitions and associations to disclose their lob-
bying activities.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stealth Lobbyist Dis-
closure Act of 2002’’.
SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE OF LOBBYING ACTIVITIES BY CERTAIN
COALITIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 3 of the
Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 is amended to read as
follows:
‘‘(2) CLIENT.—
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘client’
means any person or entity that employs or re-
tains another person for financial or other com-
pensation to conduct lobbying activities on be-
half of that person or entity. A person or entity
whose employees act as lobbyists on its own be-
half is both a client and an employer of such
employees.
‘‘(B) TREATMENT OF COALITIONS AND AS-
SOCIATIONS.—
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—Except as pro-
vided in clauses (ii) and (iii), in the case
of a coalition or association that employs
or retains other persons to conduct lob-
bying activities, each of the individual
members of the coalition or association
(and not the coalition or association) is the
client. For purposes of section 4(a)(3), the
preceding sentence shall not apply, and the
coalition or association shall be treated as
the client.
‘‘(ii) EXCEPTION FOR CERTAIN TAX-
EXEMPT
ASSOCIATIONS.—In case of an
association—
‘‘(I) which is described in para-
graph (3) of section 501(c) of the In-
ternal Revenue Code of 1986 and ex-
empt from tax under section 501(a) of
such Code, or
‘‘(II) which is described in any
other paragraph of section 501(c) of
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
and exempt from tax under section
501(a) of such Code and which has
substantial exempt activities other
than lobbying with respect to the spe-
cific issue for which it engaged the
person filing the registration state-
ment under section 4,
the association (and not its members) shall
be treated as the client.
‘‘(iii) EXCEPTION FOR CERTAIN MEM-
BERS.—
‘‘(I) IN
GENERAL.—Information
on a member of a coalition or associa-
tion need not be included in any reg-
istration under section 4 if the
amount reasonably expected to be con-
tributed by such member toward the
activities of the coalition or associa-
tion of influencing legislation is less
than $1,000 per any semiannual pe-
riod.
‘‘(II) EXCEPTION.—Subclause (I)
shall not apply with respect to any
member who unexpectedly makes ag-
gregate contributions of more than
$1,000 in any semiannual period, and
the date the aggregate of such con-
tributions first exceeds $1,000 in such
period shall be treated as the date of
first employment or retention to make
a lobbying contact for purposes of sec-
tion 4.
‘‘(iv) LOOK-THRU
RULES.—In the
case of a coalition or association which is