“A bill to provide greater controls and restrictions on revolving door lobbying.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section imposes a lifetime ban (previously one year) on former Senators, Members of the House of Representatives, and elected officers of the Senate or House from communicating with or appearing before Congress, with intent to influence, on behalf of any other person (except the United States) in connection with any matter seeking official action by Congress. It makes conforming amendments to the one-year post-employment lobbying restriction for congressional staff by excluding elected officers from that provision.
This section requires the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives to maintain a joint lobbyist disclosure internet database—an easily searchable website called lobbyists.gov with a stated goal of simplicity of usage—for information required to be publicly disclosed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. It authorizes appropriations of $100,000 for FY2026 to carry out this requirement.
This section prohibits a registered lobbyist (as defined under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995) or agent of a foreign principal (as defined under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938) from being hired by a Member or committee of Congress within 6 years after leaving such position if the individual had a substantial lobbying contact with that Member or committee. The prohibition may be waived by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics or House Committee on Ethics based on a compelling national need. The section defines substantial lobbying contact to include contacts pertaining to pending legislative business, earmark or federal funding solicitation, meeting coordination, staff presentations, or fundraising participation (excluding simple social contacts).
This section establishes annual reporting requirements under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 for substantial lobbying entities (i.e., incorporated entities employing more than three registered lobbyists during a filing period). Such entities must file with the Clerk of the House of Representatives and Secretary of the Senate a list of each employee, individual under contract, or paid consultant who is a former Senator, former Member of the House of Representatives, or covered legislative branch official paid $100,000 or more in any one year, with four or more years of total service, or holding a specified senior title (e.g., Chief of Staff, Legislative Director, Staff Director). Filings must include a brief job description and explanation of the individual's relevant experience for each listed person. This section further requires enhancements to the lobbyists.gov website, including an easily searchable, sortable, downloadable database entitled "Substantial Lobbying Entities" with an application programming interface; and directs the Clerk and Secretary to provide copies of filings to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to assess potential underreporting of lobbying activities.