Federal Lobbying: Comments on the Adequacy of Federal Lobbying Laws (Testimony, 09/30/93, GAO/T-GGD-93-49). Proposed legislation before Congress, the Revolving Door Sunshine Act of 1993 (H.R. 1593), would require public disclosure of all contacts that former Members of Congress and senior federal workers have with high-ranking public officials for up to five years after they leave office. GAO testified that existing statutes and regulations fall short in adequately identifying all contacts between former government officials and either Congress or the executive branch. As a result, GAO could not provide data on how many former Members of Congress and senior government employees have contacted either Congress or the executive branch about official actions during the last three years. GAO also could not break down the extent to which such contacts involved either the legislative or executive branches. GAO supports strengthening the lobbying statutes. One criticism of the existing lobbying requirements is that they are a patchwork approach to the problem. Other bills now before Congress also seek to strengthen the lobbying laws. In GAO's view, the more consistently that H.R. 1593 meshes with the objectives of current law and other proposed improvements, the more likely its aims will be achieved. --------------------------- Indexing Terms ----------------------------- REPORTNUM: T-GGD-93-49 TITLE: Federal Lobbying: Comments on the Adequacy of Federal Lobbying Laws DATE: 09/30/93 SUBJECT: Lobbying activities Information disclosure Legislators Interest groups Political activities Proposed legislation Ethical conduct Federal personnel legislation Disclosure law Public officials IDENTIFIER: Revolving Door Sunshine Act of 1993 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We regret that electronic text of GAO Testimony is not available at this time. See the GAO FAQ - Section 2.0 for printed copy ordering information. The FAQ is automatically retrieved with all WAIS search results or can be obtained by sending e-mail to: [email protected]