Q: How long would you recommend that all filers maintain their records in order to comply with the Lobbying Disclosure Act’s record retention requirement?

A: The House and Senate LDA Guidance requires document retention for six years. The documentation supporting each LDA report should be maintained with a copy of the as-filed report and maintained for six years.

When the Government Accountability Office audits lobbying firms, they ask for documentation on several things:

• Lobbying income or expenses
• Specific issues lobbied
• Identity of lobbyists engaged in lobbying activities on each issue during the reporting period
• Disclosure of “active participants” in lobbying activities of a coalition or association
• Disclosure  of the interest(s) of a foreign  entity in each issue lobbied
• Termination of individuals no longer engaged in lobbying for the filer
• The agency or house of Congress lobbied on each issue
• Proper disclosure of “prior government service” for individual lobbyists listed on the reports

Make sure your lobbying firm (even if you’re a sole practitioner) has an internal compliance system in place for documenting and retaining these records for each client.

This information is condensed from the Lobbying Compliance Handbook, by Cleta Mitchell.

Have a question for Compliance Q&A? Send your questions to ehill@columbiabooks.com.