K Street Cafe

Absolutely the law should be repealed as it targets intential advocacy. What you tax you get less of – we should be encouraging not taxing energetic participation in the public policy debate. Putting a gate on the public square is not helpful. What will flourish as a result is complacent participation in the political process.

If you require lobbying to be reported, then that should include grassroots efforts – whether by a corporation or non-profit. At my organization, we report all of our advocacy efforts as lobbying to be safe, even though the federal law does not currently require grassroots to be reported.

That being said, it is all protected speech and should be encouraged. Unfortunately, it is too often frowned upon and discouraged. It should be embraced by policy makers and citizens because it is part of the participatory nature of our government. Without it Congress and the Executive Branch would act in a vacuum, unaware of what the real world thinks. That isn’t good for anyone.

The last line of the Economist article is a classic:

“Because few things offend politicians more than the sight of citizens banding together to petition them with grievances”

As we have seen with recently introduced federal legislation there is a fine line between sunshine and the use of disclosure rules as a cudgel against political opponents. Fortunately the first amendment is quite clear “Congress shall make no law…”

I would agree with the sentiments expressed by the other commentors. I strongly believe that legislators and regulatory bodies should not create unreasonable barriers for citizens partaking in public policy debates. The Washington law is, in my opinion, unreasonable and creates an excessive barrier for citizen activists. I do hope that members of the Washington legislature will amend this law.

As a federally registered lobbyist, I am a big believer in transparancy but this law needs to be repealed. The limit is way too low and would force almost anyone who contacts their legislator to register as a grassroots lobbyist.

Laws like this will force people to not contact their elected officals and stiffle a person’s right to petition their government. I would think the law was enacted to make sure those that organize large campaigns to ensure transparency, which is great. But the $500 threshold is ridiculous. Time to get back to sensible laws.