Senate Bill S5843

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S5843

SPONSOR: SKOUFIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the legislative law, in relation to requiring electronic
filing of all lobbying filings

 
PURPOSE:

This bill is intended to require electronic filing of all lobbying
filings.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 renumbers sections 1-v and 1-w of the Legislative Law and adds
a new section 1-u requiring all statements and reports required by the
Lobbying Act to be submitted electronically using the Commission on
Ethics and Lobbying on the Government's online filing system.

Section 2 is the effective date.

              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Under current law, many lobbyists and clients file lobbying statements
and reports via paper, which increases the burden on staff and delays
the transparency of lobbying activity. Although most lobbyists and
clients choose to file their lobbying reports using the Commission on
Ethics and Lobbying in Government's online filing system maintained for
this purpose, the Commission still receives approximately one thousand
paper lobbying filings each year.

These paper filings create an administrative burden for the agency, as
staff must then enter the lobbying data into the online filing system by
hand, which is very time-consuming. Since lobbying filings are not
public until they are entered into the Commission's online filing
system, the continued use of paper filings delays transparency to the
public surrounding lobbying activity. Lobbying filings submitted using
the Commission's online filing system, however, are available to the
public immediately upon submission.

Amending the Lobbying Act to require electronic filing of all lobbying
reports would ease the administrative burden created by the submission
of paper filings and promote transparency of lobbying activity by ensur-
ing that all lobbying filings are available to the public upon
submission to the Commission.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

Senate

2023: N/A

2024: S9009, Referred to ethics and internal governance Assembly

2023: N/A

2024: A10302, Referred to governmental operations

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have
become a law.