Inside Political Law

Updates on developments in campaign finance, lobbying & government ethics law

Last year, an asset manager with offices in New York, Texas, and Vermont was publicly censured by the Securities and Exchange Commission and ordered to pay a substantial fine. Its offense?  The asset manager hired an individual who had previously made a personal political donation to the campaign of a state official who appointed members

As we previewed in a prior alert, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently published a complete collection of oversight plans adopted by each authorizing committee of the House of Representatives for the current Congress.  Taken together, these plans outline an expansive and aggressive agenda for congressional investigations over the next two years.

Over the past several months, several states have introduced bills that mirror the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”). There has been a trend in the states to propose so-called “baby FARA” laws that apply to foreign-influenced political activity in the states, though the proposals vary in the scope of activities that are regulated. Last

Important changes to California’s pay-to-play law took effect January 1, 2025, and now the state’s regulations have caught up to the law.

The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission adopted the new regulations late last month, following statutory revisions to California’s complex pay-to-play law found at California Government Code § 84308, sometimes known as the “Levine

Last week, the Georgia state Senate authorized a sweeping investigation of former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, continuing a national trend of increased state legislative investigations.  Although state-level investigations continue to lag far behind congressional investigations, state legislatures appear to be replicating what we see on the federal level with increasing frequency.  This emerging trend of

Recently, three key investigative committees of the House of Representatives—the Oversight and Government Reform CommitteeJudiciary Committee, and Energy and Commerce Committee—each adopted their respective committee’s oversight plan for the new Congress, offering a window into the committees’ investigative priorities for the next two years. The newly adopted oversight plans provide insights

Under the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act (“LDA”), an organization or lobbying firm must register if it employs an individual who meets the definition of a “lobbyist” and if its total expenses or income for lobbying activities meet certain monetary thresholds.  Usually, the two non-monetary thresholds determining when an individual becomes a “lobbyist,” discussed below, are

Tax-exempt organizations, including private foundations and other types of nonprofits associated with high-net worth individuals, have been subject to increasing investigative scrutiny in recent years. Last Congress, for example, the House Judiciary Committee and several other committees issued document requests to multiple nonprofit organizations, and in this Congress the trend is likely to continue. The current administration

On her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a significant memorandum to all Department of Justice employees regarding the Department’s criminal enforcement policies, including a notable directive related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”). The memorandum provides that “[r]ecourse to criminal charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act . . .