Virginia Governor Approves Changes to Ethics Laws

Kevin Newman, Esq.,
Research Associate

For the third year in a row, Virginia lawmakers approved changes to the state’s ethics laws. In May, Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed Senate Bill 692, affecting lobbyist reporting requirements, the State and Local Government Conflict of Interest Act, and the General Assembly Conflicts of Interests Act.

The bill reduces the required number of lobbyist reports to a single annual report. Due July 1, the report covers the period of May 1 to April 30. The December 15, 2016, report is not required, with the next report due on July 1, 2017. A notification must be sent by December 15, beginning this year, for the period of December 1 of the previous year to November 30.

Previously, items valued at $50 or less did not need reported. Senate Bill 692 lowers the reporting threshold to items with a value of $20 or more. Principals are no longer required to report the name of an official or of a family member of an official who attended a reportable entertainment event if the official reimburses the principal or otherwise pays for his or her attendance at the event. Further guidance as to what must be included on lobbyists reports will be issued by the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council. Effective January 1, 2017, the bill removes forms set out in the Virginia Code and directs the council to create forms and issue instructions on how to comply with disclosure requirements.

The General Assembly also made changes affecting who has to register as a lobbyist. Last year, procurement transactions were added to the definition of what constitutes executive action for purposes of lobbying executive agencies. Senate Bill 692 amends the definition of procurement transaction to exclude contracts with the stated or expected value of less than $5 million. An emergency clause in the bill made this change effective immediately upon passage.

Finally, the bill amends definitions in the conflict of interest acts. The definition of gift, with an already extensive list of exclusions, now excludes gifts with a value of less than $20. Both V.C. §2.2-3103.1 and V.C. §30-103.1 have pre-existing provisions stating gifts below $20 are not subject to aggregation for purposes of the gift limits. This amendment takes effect on July 1, 2016.
 

Summary of Changes UPDATE
Note Recent Changes to Compliance Regulations 

Michael Beckett, Esq., Research Manager

CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO: County Council recently updated the county’s code of ethics to clarify the ethical rights, responsibilities, and prohibitions applicable to elected officials, employees, board members, contractors, and lobbyists. Changes include a new five percent lobbyist registration threshold, a new lobbyist disclosure report due January 1, updated gift rules with a presumption of influence standard, and a lower monetary contract threshold for contractor registration and ethics training. The ordinance became effective May 27.

ONTARIO, CANADA: Effective July 1, the Office of the Integrity Commissioner will begin enforcing a new lobbying law for the province. In 2014, the Legislative Assembly passed an omnibus bill with changes to the province’s Lobbyists Registration Act, but the law is just now coming into force by proclamation of the lieutenant governor. Schedule 8 of Bill 8, the Public Sector and MPP Accountability and Transparency Act, 2014, gives the Ontario integrity commissioner as lobbyist registrar new investigative and enforcement power for violations. Individuals found in violation can be prohibited from lobbying for up to two years. Additional changes include a streamlined registration form for certain companies, a lower registration threshold for in-house lobbyists, and new questions on registration forms.

RHODE ISLAND: On June 13, Gov. Gina Marie Raimondo signed two bills into law changing the state’s lobbying laws. Senate Bill 2361 and House Bill 7388 both repeal the current lobbying laws in Title 22 and Title 42 in the state’s statutes and enact the Rhode Island Lobbying Reform Act. Among the changes in the bills are the simplification of lobbyist reporting requirements, an increase in penalties for failing to comply with lobbying requirements, and the allowance for more investigative and administrative authority for enforcing the lobbying laws, including administrative subpoena power. The effective date for the two bills is January 1, 2017.

TEXAS: The Texas Ethics Commission adopted rule changes to conform with House Bill 3517 of 2015. The bill had removed the exemption for registration for an individual who is solely paid to communicate in a capacity other than as an employee of a vendor of a product or service to a member of the executive branch concerning state agency purchasing decisions involving a product, service, or service provider or negotiations regarding such decisions if the compensation for the communication is not totally or partially contingent on the outcome of any administrative action. The Texas Ethics Commission Rules definition of independent contractor under T.E.C.R. §34.1(5) has been repealed. The Texas Ethics Commission Rules allowing for $75 registration for certain independent contractors under T.E.C.R. §34.46 has also been repealed. On May 3, the rule changes became effective.

TEXAS: Beginning June 22, lobbyists in Texas are required to include previously excluded types of compensation when reporting lobbyist activity. On June 1, the Texas Ethics Commission adopted rules changing some regulations. One regulation currently allows for compensation exceptions for purposes of calculating the threshold requiring registration as a lobbyist. Those same exceptions were also exempted from lobbyist activity reporting. Effective June 22, those exceptions for calculating the registration threshold remain, but registered lobbyists will now have to report those types of compensation. Additionally, the Ethics Commission enacted a rule narrowing the gift exemption for permissible fact-finding trips provided to government officials and employees by lobbyists.

Legislation We Are Tracking

At any given time, more than 1,000 legislative bills, which can affect how you do business as a government affairs professional, are being discussed in federal, state, and local jurisdictions. These bills are summarized in State and Federal Communications' digital encyclopedias for lobbying laws, political contributions, and procurement lobbying and can be found in the client portion of our website.

Summaries of major bills are also included in monthly email updates sent to all clients. The chart below shows the number of bills we are tracking in regard to lobbying laws, political contributions, and procurement lobbying.

Jurisdiction Added to our Website

The number of municipalities and regional governments our research associates track continues to grow. We now cover almost 300 municipalities and local governments. This is part of a continuous effort to better serve the needs of our clients.

In that effort, we have added abridged jurisdictions to our website. These entries, condensed due to the limited number of relevant local laws, provide the core information our clients need for their government relations work.

The new jurisdiction is:

W  E  B  S  I  T  E      T  I  P Every month subscribers to the State and Federal Communications website receive the Summary of Changes, which is a list of all of the changes and additions made to the website in the course of the prior month. One of the features of the Summary of Changes is the Legislation Updates, found in the left-hand column of the state updates. The legislation updates follow the bills relevant to the particular publication from introduction to final disposition. When the bills are first listed in the Summary of Changes, a very brief description of the bill is included. In subsequent months the update will show the bill number and, in parentheses, the month and year of the Summary of Changes document that the bill was first listed, followed by the current status of the bill. The bill will continue to be listed until it is signed into law, carries over to the next session, or dies. The full bill text, along with the most recent updates, can be found on each jurisdiction’s webpage titled “Legislative Updates for 2016.”

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