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To amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to expand the scope of individuals and activities which are subject to the requirements of such Act, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill would amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to expand which individuals and activities must be disclosed under federal lobbying regulations. The bill treats providers of legislative, political, and strategic counseling services as engaging in lobbying activity if they provide such services in support of lobbying contacts with government officials. Individuals who provide such counseling services and have authority to direct or influence lobbying contacts would be considered to have made those lobbying contacts themselves and would need to comply with disclosure requirements. The bill would also reduce from 20 percent to 10 percent the threshold of time spent on lobbying-related activities that triggers the requirement for individuals to register as lobbyists. These changes would apply to lobbying contacts made on or after the date of enactment.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
5 cosponsors
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Delia C. Ramirez’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- AYAZZ CONSTRCTION LLC $11,600
- D'ESCOTO INC. $9,150
- STATE OF ILLINOIS $8,550
- NULL $7,300
- BULL AND BEAR CO $7,000
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Delia C. Ramirez → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Jan 22, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
- Jan 22, 2026 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 22, 2026
Mrs. Ramirez (for herself, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Mr. Mullin, and Ms. Simon) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to expand the scope of individuals and activities which are subject to the requirements of such Act, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Lobbyist Loophole Closure Act”.
SEC. 2. EXPANDING SCOPE OF INDIVIDUALS AND ACTIVITIES SUBJECT TO REQUIREMENTS OF LOBBYING DISCLOSURE ACT OF 1995.
(a) Coverage of Individuals Providing Legislative, Political, and Strategic Counseling Services.—
(1) Treatment of legislative, political, and strategic counseling services in support of lobbying contacts as lobbying activity.—Section 3(7) of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1602(7)) is amended—
(A) by striking “efforts” and inserting “any efforts”; and
(B) by striking “research and other background work” and inserting the following: “counseling in support of such preparation and planning activities, research, and other background work”.
(2) Treatment of lobbying contact made with support of counseling services as lobbying contact made by individual providing services.—Section 3(8) of such Act (2 U.S.C. 1602(8)) is amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
“(C) Treatment of providers of counseling services.—Any individual, with authority to director or substantially influence any lobbying contact made by another individual, and for financial or other compensation provides counseling services in support of preparation and planning activities which are treated as lobbying activities under paragraph (7) for that other individual’s lobbying contact and who has knowledge that the specific lobbying contact was made, shall be considered to have made the same lobbying contact at the same time in the same manner to the covered executive branch official or covered legislative branch official involved.”.
(b) Reduction of Percentage Exemption for Determination of Threshold of Lobbying Contacts Required for Individuals To Register as Lobbyists.—Section 3(10) of such Act (2 U.S.C. 1602(10)) is amended by striking “less than 20 percent” and inserting “less than 10 percent”.
(c) Effective Date.—The amendments made by this section shall apply with respect to lobbying contacts made on or after the date of the enactment of this Act. <all>
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