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 Raising
Your Voice
How does Wisconsin’s Lobbying Law affect me?
Wisconsin’s lobby law was developed to level the “playing field” not to force citizens out of the legislative process. The distinctions between professional lobbyists and citizen advocates under Wisconsin Lobby law are straightforward:
- If you can vote for a specific individual, you can contact them without any restrictions. Contact with your elected officials is not restricted by Wisconsin’s lobby law. When you contact your elected representative you are providing valuable constituent information – and that is at the heart of representative democracy.
- Employers may set work place rules about contacting elected officials on office time. For example: Government employees are prohibited from making contact with elected officials for the purpose of influencing legislation or policy during working hours. But office policies do not apply to after hours volunteer work performed in your home or another location.
- A professional lobbyist is someone employed to contact elected officials on 5 or more days in a six month period with the intention of influencing public policy.
Even if your employer asks you to contact legislators – as long as you contact them for the purpose of influencing legislation on less than 5 days within a 6 month period, you are making citizen contacts – not lobbying.
- A citizen, can contact all 132 members of the legislature on a topic of concern to them repeatedly and is not a lobbyist as long as they are not paid to make those contacts.
For example: An individual could send a birthday card to every member of the Legislature on their birthday urging support (or rejection) of any public policy matter – as long as they were not paid to send the cards, and paid for the cards and postage with personal funds.
- Nonprofit groups have limits, but not a prohibition, on the percentage of their budget that can be used for lobbying set by the U.S. tax code. Outside grant funds from Foundation or other philanthropic groups may include restrictions or lobbying, but in general nonprofit groups and their employees may lobby or advocate on behalf of issues that concern them. If you are an employee or board member of a nonprofit group, ask for guidance – don’t fall silent.
RESOURCES:
Effective Advocacy
Advocacy or Lobbying?
The following resources are from the Wisconsin Ethics Board:
Does Your Organization Need to Register as a Lobbying Principal?
When Must an Individual Obtain a License to Lobby?
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