The 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) requires lobbyists to file new registrations with the secretary of the Senate and the clerk of the House within 45 days, quarterly lobbying activity and payment disclosures, and semiannual political contribution reports. 

The secretary of the Senate and the clerk of the House notifies lobbyists who fail to comply with reporting requirements. If they don’t get a timely or appropriate response, they then make referrals to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO). 

Of the 3,622 referrals the USAO has received for alleged quarterly lobbying reporting violations since 2014, about 74 percent were still pending as of January, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). 

Around two-thirds of alleged political contribution reporting violations are also pending: About 67 percent of the 2,128 lobbying firms and 65 percent of the 7,962 individual lobbyists referred to the USAO since 2014, according to the GAO. 

Referrals were pending because the USAO “could not locate the lobbyists, did not receive a response from the lobbyists after an enforcement action, or planned to conduct additional research to determine if it can locate the lobbyist,” the report notes.  

“While it’s certainly possible, maybe even likely, that a number of these violations are ultimately the result of minor mistakes or oversight, the fact that so many cases remain unresolved for so long should be a red flag that critical oversight of a massively influential industry is failing,” Robert Maguire, vice president for research at the nonprofit watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told The Hill. 

Nearly 13,000 federal lobbyists disclosed receiving $4.3 billion in 2023, according to the nonpartisan money-in-politics organization OpenSecrets. Lobbyists and firms overwhelmingly comply with reporting requirements, and alleged violations are just a small percentage of the tens of thousands of reports filed each year. 

Noncompliant lobbyists are also offered “ample opportunity” to correct their filings, and these situations are “typically cleared up by just filing the report,” Steve Roberts, a partner at Holtzman Vogel, told The Hill. 

“Enforcement of this is so lenient as is and then to have that backlog outstanding is pretty remarkable,” Roberts said. 

Although LDA compliance is commonly referred to as an “honor system,” the USAO has the authority to respond to these alleged violations — including with potential criminal and civil penalties — and the longstanding backlog raises questions about its ability to do so. 

“Honor systems always have consequences,” Maguire said. “Trusting people to do what they’re required to do doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be consequences for failing to do so, but that is in effect what we’re seeing here.” 

The Hill’s Taylor Giorno has more here.