A bill on the Senate floor would require lobbyists to file disclosures within 48 hours of an advertising campaign.
The Senate Committee on Government Operations sponsored S.93 and passed the bill out of committee 5-0 Thursday. The bill is now on the Senate floor awaiting a second reading.
In its current version, S.93 would require registered lobbyists, lobbying firms and lobbyist employers to disclose advertisements or advertising campaigns that they spend $1,000 or more on during a legislative session.
The lobbyist, lobbyist employer or lobbying firm would have to disclose who paid for the advertisement within the ad itself “in a manner such that a reasonable person would clearly understand by whom the expenditure had been made.” If there are more than three contributors, the top three contributors must be disclosed within the advertisement.
Within 48 hours of the ad or group of ads running or being paid for during the legislative session, lobbyists would file an advertising report for the individual ad with the Secretary of State. The advertising report requirement is in addition to lobbyists’ current obligations to file expenditure reports — and the bill would increase the number of times per year lobbyists need to file expenditure reports from three to five.
Currently, lobbyists must disclose expenditures on activities between January and March by April 25; from April through June by July 25; and from June through December by Jan. 25. But Secretary of State Jim Condos convinced the committee on Tuesday to require disclosures more frequently during the legislative session.
The deadline for expenditures made between July and December would move up to Jan. 15. Monthly disclosures for expenditures in January through March would be required on the 15th of the following month. Disclosures of expenditures between April 1 and June 30 would be due July 15.
Condos told the committee that the additional reporting dates are important because many newspapers in Vermont are weekly publications. Condos said that, under current law, a group could put an ad in a different paper each week in a different region, and most people wouldn’t notice a possible statewide campaign if it wasn’t disclosed until April 25 or July 25 — when the session is either over or nearly over.
Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, chair of the committee, said Thursday that the panel decided to include five dates instead of seven because they are mostly interested in advertisements designed to influence legislation.
“That’s the only time that they can affect legislation,” White said.
Michael Duane, senior assistant attorney general, said lawmakers should not draw a parallel with campaign finance laws because lobbying involves three First Amendment rights, while campaign finance deals more with “corruption and quid pro quo.”
Duane said moderately increasing the number of disclosures per year would not “tip the scale” to make the law unconstitutional.
Because the bill would fall under a pre-existing statute, violating the law would carry fines of up to $10,000 for each violation and $1,000 for each day the violation continues. The penalties would be civil and handled by the Attorney General’s Office.
BetsyAnn Wrask, of the Legislative Council, told the committee that requirements for immediate lobbyist disclosures of advertising buys are fairly new. Wrask said New Mexico has the most similar law, which requires lobbyists to disclose all expenditures of $500 or more within 48 hours during the legislative session.
In Vermont, there were 32 lobbyist employers and 446 lobbyists registered with the Secretary of State from 2013-14.
Julia Michel, a lobbyist for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said Thursday the “centerpiece” of the bill is the 48-hour requirement to report advertisements to the Secretary of State.
“It would apply to us, and we think that’s a good thing,” Michel said.
Last month, the committee threw out another lobbyist transparency bill, S.37, which would have required lobbyists to wear name tags and disclose conflicts of interest.
