 Lobbying is something everyone has an opinion about, but not everybody knows what lobbyists can and can't do. We're going to talk briefly about what lobbyists are allowed to give to the people they're trying to influence, which includes what travel they can pay for. We use the federal rules as an example because each state has their own variations. At the federal level, there were almost 13,000 registered lobbyists spending over $3.3 billion in 2011. Now, before we go any further, let's be clear on what lobbying is. Here, we're talking about spending money to convince a politician or a senior federal official about a specific law or regulation, either one-on-one or as a group. Just talking about things you would like to see happen or issues that concern you isn't considered lobbying. Spending money to build a grassroots campaign for or against a law or regulation isn't considered lobbying either. This means that while federal funds given to organizations can't be used to support lobbying efforts, they could be used to support grassroots outreach, though federal agencies are not allowed to spend any money on grassroots campaigns. Lobbyists can still donate money in politics like anyone else. They can also form political action committees to take donations and give them to candidates. Lobbyists can also contribute money to ballot initiatives, though in all cases they have to disclose anything they give over $200. For more information about how campaign finance works, check out the video on this very channel. Better to give than to receive, right? But there are some gifts lobbyists just can't give at all. Politicians can't accept gifts from lobbyists to any organization they control, like a charity, business, or foundation. They also can't accept contributions to charities made for them. Politicians are also not allowed to accept contributions that are legal defense funds from lobbyists, though they can't accept contributions to legal expense funds for legal expenses associated with their official duties. One would assume that being politicians, trying to stay out of jail would count as an official duty. Politicians and their staffs may only accept gifts valued at $50 or less at any one time, and may only get gifts valuing less than $100 from any one source in a year. They also can't accept gifts that are just money or its equivalent like stock or gold. Nor can they accept gifts to a concert or sports game with a fake lowered value. Finally, they can't accept any gift in a situation where someone will believe the gift was influencing their performance of their jobs. Because, you know, the lobbyists just want to be nice. Because these are politicians we're talking about, there are exceptions to these rules. They can accept the gift if they pay market value for it, or if it's something given ordinarily as part of an outside job or business of their own, or of their spouse, or if it's a gift from a friend or relative, or from another politician, or from the politician's staff on holidays or special occasions. They can accept retirement benefits from a previous job, or honorary degrees and any food or lodging for the ceremony, though they do have to disclose it if it is valued at more than $250, or informational materials, or products from their home state that they show off in their offices like Hershey's chocolate for Pennsylvania politicians. Or any prize open to the public, or any expenses from attending training except food and lodging. They can accept gifts from foreign governments, though anything valuable will be displayed by Congress. And they can attend any public event for free. They can take free hospitality from anyone who's not a lobbyist, or small amounts of food and small items like t-shirts and greeting cards. The House and Senate ethics committees can also grant waivers allowing politicians to accept a gift. Because if there's one side of people you can trust to watch politicians, it's other politicians. Senior federal agency officials can use some of these gift exemptions as well, but not all of them. Paid travel is not treated much differently than gifts. All official travel paid for by an outside group must be approved by the ethics committee and posted to a public database. Politicians are required to pay the going rate for any aircraft they use, even if it's someone's private aircraft. Members of the House of Representatives are only allowed to fly commercial. Usually lobbyists aren't allowed to pay for official travel unless they work for charities or colleges, but they can pay for one to two-day trips as long as there's an actual event to attend, and then only if the lobbyists are only a part of side meetings and not the official event. Other private entities can pay for official travel if it's related to an official purpose and to what the entity does, and if the location was chosen because of the purpose of the visit and not because it's near a bunch of golf courses. The travel must be less than three to four days domestic or a weak international. Any expenses must be for travel or lodging and must be reasonable. Entertainment is only allowed if it's for everyone who comes, including non-politicians, and politicians may only bring one relative. Now, if it's just regular private travel, other people can pay for politicians and their staffs, though the person paying is not allowed to do it because of their position, and the trip has to be the same version of a trip that anyone else would get. A politician's friend can pay to send them somewhere for less than $250 any time, or more than that with a waiver from the ethics committee. These are friends much more generous than mine. A local or state government can pay for any kind of travel for congresspeople that it wants to, and there are not that many restrictions on the kinds of official travel that congress can give itself. Odd how that worked out. And there you have it.