 We've already talked about lobbyists giving gifts and sending politicians on travel. Let's talk now about politicians and lobbyists getting new jobs, what information lobbyists have to disclose, and what the punishments are for breaking the rules. To make things just a little more complicated, bear in mind during all of this it's certain kinds of tax-exempt nonprofits fall under a different set of rules in some ways based on tax law. They can even make gifts, some of which fund lobbying activities, tax deductible for their donors. Foist jorbs. Top federal agency officials and politicians are not allowed to take any lobbying jobs in the same field for two years after they leave. New agency officials who used to be lobbyists may not work on any matter involving their old clients for two years. Senior members of a politician's staff can't lobby after they leave for at least a year and a politician can allow their staff to be lobbied by that politician's spouse if they are lobbyists. Politicians and their staffs must disclose any employment negotiations that take place before a successor is elected and politicians can't use their position to get lobbying firms to hire people. This was in response to a long-running practice of having lobbying firms hire staffers when they left congressional offices. After all, if you know you're going to go work for someone else's lobbying firm, are you going to say no to them while you're still in Congress? Now we come to the information lobbyists have to disclose. This seems to be the focus of a lot of the rules about lobbying, making sure that they tell everyone what they're up to. The law defines lobbyists required to make reports as anyone or any organization that employs someone who spends more than 20% of their time lobbying or spends more than $22,500 on lobbying costs. So you're good if you're really cheap or lazy. Lobbyists must disclose who they are lobbying for, how much they make, how much they spend in expenses, and who they are lobbying, either in Congress or in the federal agencies. These reports are filed quarterly. They can use a good faith estimate to report how much they spend and they also don't have to report every single meeting they have with someone. They do have to report not just which people they are trying to influence, but also what they are trying to influence them about down to the specific bills and sections. Just asking for information about something is not lobbying. They also don't have to report any client who pays them less than $3,000 a quarter or who they help for free. They do have to report any foreign entity that hires them directly or indirectly as long as they're paid $5,000 or more. They must disclose any event they pay for, like conferences or ceremonies to honor a politician or federal official. They must also disclose any awards given out in their honor, like scholarships. They must disclose any contributions they make to charities or foundations controlled by a politician or federal official, including charitable donations, unless the charity was established before the person became powerful and no longer has any relationship with the politician or federal official. They also have to disclose any donations to presidential libraries or inaugural committees, but they don't have to report any funding for multi-candidate debates. Churches and religious organizations don't have to disclose any lobbying activity unless they hire an outside firm. Lobbyists do have to disclose if they are working for a state or local government. As right, your taxes might go towards a lobbyist to get more of your taxes. But, on the other hand, industry associations don't have to disclose who their individual members are. The Government Accountability Office does audit lobbyist compliance and their reports say that most lobbyists are basically following the rules. All of the forms are also posted to a publicly searchable database. To be annoying, lobbyists will print out all of their forms and give them a hard copy so they have to be entered in manually. The database isn't very easy to search, so it's hard to see how much lobbying was done on a specific bill or issue, or to calculate trends over time. The database of lobbying forms is at least easy to find. The database of waivers from the Ethics Committee is not. These are all the different rules, but what kinds of punishments are in place if you break them? On the disclosure side, knowing that you filed incorrect information or knowing that you're breaking the rules can get you up to $200,000 in fines. Knowing that you're breaking the rules and doing so for a corrupt purpose can get you a prison sentence of up to five years. Using your political office to get someone hired as a lobbyist can mean fines in prison for up to 15 years. Now, it's hard to say how consistent these rules are in force or how often fines in prison are given out. It has been known to happen, though. The Ethics Committees do give out waivers to the rules for things like charity fundraisers, but it's also hard to say whether they are being abused or not. So it's up to you how suspicious you want to be of politicians and lobbyists. And there you have it.