I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6533 
To amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to require an individual 
to register as a lobbyist under such Act if the individual is employed 
or retained by a client for making more than one lobbying contact 
over a 2-year period and to treat legislative, political, and strategic 
counseling in support of lobbying contacts as lobbying activity under 
such Act, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 25, 2018 
Mr. SARBANES (for himself and Mr. POLIS) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in 
addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to require 
an individual to register as a lobbyist under such Act 
if the individual is employed or retained by a client 
for making more than one lobbying contact over a 2- 
year period and to treat legislative, political, and stra-
tegic counseling in support of lobbying contacts as lob-
bying activity under such Act, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:36 Aug 07, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H6533.IH
H6533
pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Curtailing Lobbying 
and Empowering Americans for a New Politics Act of 
2018’’ or the ‘‘CLEAN Politics Act of 2018’’. 
SEC. 2. EXPANDING SCOPE OF INDIVIDUALS AND ACTIVI-
TIES SUBJECT TO REQUIREMENTS OF LOB-
BYING DISCLOSURE ACT OF 1995. 
(a) ELIMINATION OF 20 PERCENT EXEMPTION FOR 
DETERMINATION
OF THRESHOLD
OF LOBBYING CON-
TACTS REQUIRED FOR INDIVIDUALS TO REGISTER AS 
LOBBYISTS.—Section 3(10) of the Lobbying Disclosure 
Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1602(10)) is amended by striking 
‘‘more than one lobbying contact’’ and all that follows and 
inserting ‘‘more than one lobbying contact over a 2-year 
period.’’. 
(b) COVERAGE OF INDIVIDUALS PROVIDING LEGIS-
LATIVE, POLITICAL, AND STRATEGIC COUNSELING SERV-
ICES.— 
(1) TREATMENT OF LEGISLATIVE, POLITICAL, 
AND STRATEGIC COUNSELING SERVICES IN SUPPORT 
OF LOBBYING CONTACTS AS LOBBYING ACTIVITY.— 
Section 3(7) of such Act (2 U.S.C. 1602(7)) is 
amended— 
(A) by striking ‘‘efforts’’ and inserting 
‘‘any efforts’’; and 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:36 Aug 07, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H6533.IH
H6533
pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply with respect to lobbying contacts 
made on or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 
SEC. 3. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CONTRIBUTIONS FOR 
PURPOSES OF CONTRIBUTION LIMITS UNDER 
FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN ACT OF 1971. 
(a) TREATMENT OF BUNDLED CONTRIBUTIONS AS 
CONTRIBUTIONS
BY DONOR
AND BUNDLER.—Section 
315(a) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 
U.S.C. 30116(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new paragraph: 
‘‘(10)(A) For purposes of paragraph (1), any bundled 
contribution to a committee described in section 304(i)(6) 
that is forwarded by or credited to a person described in 
section 304(i)(7) (including the agent of such a person) 
shall be treated both as a contribution made by the person 
forwarding such contribution or credited with such con-
tribution, and as a contribution made by the contributor. 
‘‘(B) For purposes of determining the amount of bun-
dled contributions provided by a person to a committee 
which were received by the person at a fundraising event 
sponsored by the person, or in response to an invitation 
to attend a fundraising event sponsored by the person, 
each person who is a sponsor of the event shall be consid-
ered to have provided to the committee the aggregate 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:36 Aug 07, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H6533.IH
H6533
pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS
amount of all bundled contributions which were provided 
to the committee by all sponsors of the event. 
‘‘(C) This paragraph does not apply with respect to 
a contribution made by any individual who is a spouse, 
parent, child, sibling, father-in-law, or mother-in-law of 
the person described in section 304(i)(7). 
‘‘(D) Nothing in this paragraph may be construed to 
prohibit any person from engaging in volunteer activity 
on behalf of a candidate or from making communications 
which provide information about the candidate but which 
do not include the solicitation of contributions or other 
fundraising activity in support of the candidate. 
‘‘(E) In this paragraph, the term ‘bundled contribu-
tion’ has the meaning given such term in section 304(i)(8), 
except that such term also includes a contribution which 
would be a bundled contribution under section 304(i)(8) 
if it met the applicable threshold described in section 
304(i)(3).’’. 
(b) TREATMENT OF CONTRIBUTIONS SOLICITED BY 
LOBBYISTS AS CONTRIBUTIONS BY DONOR AND LOB-
BYIST.—Section 315(a) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30116(a)), 
as amended by subsection (a), is further amended by add-
ing at the end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(11)(A) For purposes of paragraph (1), any con-
tribution made to a committee described in section 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:36 Aug 07, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H6533.IH
H6533
pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS
304(i)(6) that is solicited by a person described in section 
304(i)(7) (including the agent of such a person) shall be 
treated both as a contribution made by the contributor 
and as a contribution made by the person who solicited 
the contribution. 
‘‘(B) This paragraph does not apply with respect to 
a contribution made by any individual who is a spouse, 
parent, child, sibling, father-in-law, or mother-in-law of 
the person described in section 304(i)(7).’’. 
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply with respect to contributions made 
on or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 
SEC. 4. PROHIBITING CANDIDATES FROM SOLICITING CAM-
PAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM REGISTERED 
LOBBYISTS WHILE CONGRESS IS IN SESSION. 
Title III of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 
1971 (2 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.) is amended by adding at 
the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 325. PROHIBITING CANDIDATES FROM SOLICITING 
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM REGISTERED LOBBY-
ISTS WHILE CONGRESS IS IN SESSION. 
‘‘(a) CANDIDATES FOR SENATE.—A candidate for the 
office of Senator, an individual holding the office of Sen-
ator, an agent of such a candidate or an individual holding 
such office, or an entity directly or indirectly established, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:36 Aug 07, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H6533.IH
H6533
pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS
financed, maintained, or controlled by or acting on behalf 
of 1 or more such candidates or individuals holding such 
office may not solicit from any registered lobbyist funds 
in connection with any election for the office of Senator 
during any period in which the Senate is in session. 
‘‘(b) CANDIDATES FOR HOUSE.—A candidate for the 
office of Representative in, or Delegate or Resident Com-
missioner to, the Congress, an individual holding such an 
office, an agent of a candidate or an individual holding 
such an office, or an entity directly or indirectly estab-
lished, financed, maintained, or controlled by or acting on 
behalf of 1 or more such candidates or individuals holding 
such an office may not solicit from any registered lobbyist 
funds in connection with any election for the office of Rep-
resentative in, or Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, 
the Congress during any period in which the House of 
Representatives is in session. 
‘‘(c) REGISTERED LOBBYIST DEFINED.—For pur-
poses of this section, the term ‘registered lobbyist’ means 
any person who is described in subparagraph (A), (B), or 
(C) of section 304(i)(7). 
‘‘(d) DETERMINATION OF WHEN BODY IS IN SES-
SION.—For purposes of this section, the Senate or House 
of Representatives shall be considered to be in session dur-
ing any period unless such body has adjourned for, or is 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:36 Aug 07, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H6533.IH
H6533
pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS
in recess for, a period of 10 consecutive calendar days or 
longer.’’. 
SEC. 5. CLARIFICATION OF ACTIONS CONSTITUTING SOLIC-
ITATION UNDER FEDERAL ELECTION CAM-
PAIGN ACT OF 1971. 
Section 301 of the Federal Election Campaign Act 
of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101) is amended by adding at the 
end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(27) The term ‘solicit’ means to directly or in-
directly ask, request, or recommend, explicitly or im-
plicitly, that another person make a contribution, 
donation, transfer of funds, or otherwise provide 
anything of value.’’. 
SEC. 6. REPEALING EXEMPTION FROM REGISTRATION 
UNDER 
FOREIGN 
AGENTS 
REGISTRATION 
ACT OF 1938 FOR PERSONS FILING DISCLO-
SURE REPORTS UNDER LOBBYING DISCLO-
SURE ACT OF 1995. 
(a) REPEAL OF EXEMPTION.—Section 3 of the For-
eign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 613) is 
amended by striking subsection (h). 
(b) TIMING OF FILING OF REGISTRATION STATE-
MENTS.—Section 2 of the Foreign Agents Registration 
Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 612) is amended— 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:36 Aug 07, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H6533.IH
H6533
pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS
(1) in subsection (a), in the matter preceding 
paragraph (1), in the fourth sentence, by striking 
‘‘The registration statement shall include’’ and in-
serting ‘‘Except as provided in subsection (h), the 
registration statement shall include’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(h) TIMING FOR FILING OF STATEMENTS BY PER-
SONS REGISTERED UNDER LOBBYING DISCLOSURE ACT 
OF 1995.—In the case of an agent of a person described 
in section 1(b)(2) or an entity described in section 1(b)(3) 
who has registered under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 
1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), after the agent files the 
first registration required under subsection (a) in connec-
tion with the agent’s representation of such person or enti-
ty, the agent shall file all subsequent statements required 
under this section at the same time, and in the same fre-
quency, as the reports filed with the Clerk of the House 
of Representatives or the Secretary of the Senate (as the 
case may be) under section 5 of the Lobbying Disclosure 
Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1604) in connection with the 
agent’s representation of such person or entity.’’. 
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall take effect 180 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:36 Aug 07, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\H6533.IH
H6533
pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS