The USA also has experience with the difficulty of interest group regulation. The 1946 Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act which was widely considered to be inadequate because of its poor definition of a lobbyist and covered only up to a third of lobbyists working in Washington (Thomas 1998: 59 in Malone 2004: 21). The Act defined a lobbyist as any person
“who by himself, or through an agent, or employee or other persons in any manner … solicits, collects, or receives money or anything of value to be used principally to aid … the passage or defeat of any legislation by the Congress”. (Malone 2004: 21)
The most recent legislation is the Lobbying Disclosure Act (1995). This act distinguishes between a lobbyist, the client of a lobbyist and an affiliated organisation that is also involved in the lobbying. The definitions provided in the act are:
Client: Any person or entity that employs or retains another person for financial or other compensation to conduct lobbying activities on behalf of the person or entity.
Affiliated Organisation: An affiliated organisation is any entity other than the client that contributes in excess of $5000 towards the registrant’s lobbying activities in a quarterly period, and actively participates in the planning, supervision, or control of such lobbying activities.
Lobbyist: Any individual who is employed or retained by a client for financial or other compensation for services that include more than one lobbying contact, other than an individual whose lobbying activities constitute less than 20 percent of the time engaged in the services provided by such individual to that client over a six month period.
Lobbying Contact: Any oral or written communication (including an electronic communication) to a covered executive branch official or a covered legislative branch official that is made on behalf of a client with regard to
- The formulation, modification, or adoption of Federal legislation (including legislative proposals).
- The formulation, modification, or adoption of a Federal rule, regulation, Executive order, or any other program, policy, or position of the United States Government.
