The spine, in order
Three statutes, the offices that hold the filings, and the cases on the record. Read in order it runs from a 1938 propaganda statute to an address that became a shorthand; read out of order, each stage stands on its own.
- 01
A 1938 act written for propaganda, still used today
The Foreign Agents Registration Act was passed to expose foreign influence before the war and now governs anyone acting for a foreign principal.
- 02
1995 defined who counts as a lobbyist
The Lobbying Disclosure Act set the registration threshold and the quarterly report, which is the reason any of this is countable at all.
- 03
2007 tightened the reporting and the gifts
The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act shortened the reporting cycle and restricted gifts and travel, after the scandals of the preceding years.
- 04
Below the line, you are not a lobbyist
Registration turns on income and time thresholds, which is why a great deal of influence work is legally something else.
- 05
What a quarterly report actually contains
Each filing names the client, the issues, the chambers contacted and an income band — and the bands are wide enough to matter.
- 06
Two offices hold the whole record
The Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate receive the filings, which is why the data exists as a single public series.
- 07
Cooling-off periods, and what they do not cover
Former officials face time-limited restrictions on contacting their old employer; the restrictions are narrower than the phrase suggests.
- 08
Persuading the public is not lobbying, legally
Grassroots campaigning falls outside the federal definition, which is why spending on it is largely invisible in the filings.
- 09
A conviction in 2006, and what it changed
Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty in 2006; the case is the direct cause of the 2007 act and remains the standard citation.
- 10
The 1922 scandal that set the pattern
Teapot Dome established that leasing decisions could be bought, and shaped how later disclosure law was argued for.
- 11
Documents released by litigation, not by disclosure
The tobacco industry's internal papers became public through court settlement, and they show what the filings never had to.
- 12
Who paid for the study is now part of the record
Published work in 2016 traced sugar-industry funding of nutrition research in the 1960s, which changed disclosure expectations in journals.
- 13
Money that moves outside the registers
527 and 501(c)(4) organisations report to different regimes, so the same activity can be visible or invisible depending on the vehicle.
- 14
An address that became a shorthand
K Street names a corridor of Washington offices and, by extension, the trade — the firms themselves are spread far wider than the street.