You may have received a notice last night from the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Secretary of the U.S. Senate regarding the recently passed JACK Act and its impact on filings under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. The JACK Act was enacted at the end of the last Congress to require disclosure by any registered organization of any prior convictions involving the offenses listed below made by registered lobbyists of the organization. At this time, no action needs to be taken as the House and Senate are in the process of changing the filing forms and online filing system to accommodate this new requirement. Once this has been completed, any registrations or quarterly reports filed after January 3, 2019 (which includes the most recently filed Q4 2018 reports) for which this disclosure is applicable will need to be amended. This information also will need to be disclosed on any reports or registrations filed in the future. In order to prepare for this filing requirement, please collect the date of the conviction and a description of the offense for any registered lobbyist who has been convicted in a federal or state court of an offense involving:
- Bribery
- Extortion
- Embezzlement
- An illegal kickback
- Tax evasion
- Fraud
- A conflict of interest
- Making a false statement
- Perjury or
- Money laundering
