Sponsors
The bill trades stronger anti‑revolving‑door rules and much better, centralized lobbying transparency (which strengthen oversight and public trust) against substantial effects on former officials' careers, greater privacy and legal risks, and higher compliance and administrative costs.
Taxpayers and the public will face reduced revolving‑door influence because the bill substantially tightens post‑employment restrictions on former Members and senior staff and limits hiring of recent lobbyists by Members and committees.
All Americans, watchdogs, and reporters gain easier access to lobbyist disclosures through a single, searchable website (lobbyists.gov) with downloadable data and an API, backed by initial funding to promote implementation.
Citizens and law enforcement benefit from stronger enforcement and reporting: higher civil penalties and routine filings to enforcement authorities make it easier to detect underreporting and deter deliberate disclosure violations.
Former Members and covered congressional staff will face substantially reduced post‑employment options (including a lifetime criminal prohibition for some activities and six‑year bans for staff), limiting private‑sector careers and earnings.
The bill increases criminal and legal risk (lifetime criminal bars for some roles, much higher civil fines, and routine sharing of filings with U.S. Attorneys), which could chill legitimate contacts, deter hires, and raise fears of criminalization absent clear evidence of wrongdoing.
Organizations, lobbying firms, and government offices will face higher compliance, administrative, and litigation costs to collect, verify, publish, and defend the new disclosures (and to contest alleged violations), which could be borne by taxpayers, clients, or small organizations.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Tightens post‑government lobbying bans (including a lifetime ban for former Members), lengthens staff cooling‑offs to 6 years, creates a public lobbyist database, and raises civil penalties to $500,000.
Introduced May 21, 2025 by Michael F. Bennet · Last progress May 21, 2025
Creates much stricter post‑employment limits and new disclosure rules for people and organizations that lobby Congress. It bars former Senators and Representatives from knowingly appearing or communicating to influence Members or staff on behalf of others for life, lengthens cooling‑off periods for covered congressional staff from one year to six years, and bars certain registered lobbyists and foreign agents from being hired into Member or committee jobs for six years if they had substantial lobbying contacts with that Member or committee. The bill also requires a joint, public, searchable lobbyist database (lobbyists.gov), new annual disclosure filings by entities that employ multiple lobbyists listing former lawmakers/staff they employ, forwards those filings to the U.S. Attorney in D.C., and sets a $500,000 civil penalty for knowing violations of lobby disclosure requirements. A $100,000 FY2026 appropriation is authorized to stand up the database.