LDA registration and the 20 percent test, in plain English

The Lobbying Disclosure Act is short, plainly written, and almost universally misunderstood on one point: the 20 percent test does not measure how much time someone spends talking to Congress. It measures how much time they spend on the work around it.

What follows is a description of what the statute says, with citations. It is not legal advice, and it is not advice about any particular organization’s situation — questions about how the Act applies to your facts belong with counsel.

The definition, in the statute’s own words

2 U.S.C. 1602(10): a lobbyist is “any individual who is employed or retained by a client for financial or other compensation for services that include more than one lobbying contact, other than an individual whose lobbying activities constitute less than 20 percent of the time engaged in the services provided by such individual to that client over a 3-month period.”

The Clerk of the House states the same thing affirmatively, as three conditions that must all be met: the individual is employed or retained by a client for compensation; their services include more than one lobbying contact; and their lobbying activities constitute 20 percent or more of their time in services for that client over any three-month period.

All three. One contact is not enough. Uncompensated advocacy is not enough. And nineteen percent is not enough.

The word that does the work is “activities”

Section 1602(7): “lobbying activities” means lobbying contacts and efforts in support of such contacts, including preparation and planning activities, research and other background work that is intended, at the time it is performed, for use in contacts, and coordination with the lobbying activities of others.

This is the sentence people miss. The 20 percent threshold is measured against lobbying activities, not lobbying contacts. The hour on the phone with a staffer counts. So do the twelve hours spent researching the issue for that call, drafting the one-pager, preparing the principal, and coordinating with a coalition running the same argument. An individual can make two brief contacts in a quarter and still be well past 20 percent.

What counts as a contact, and what is carved out

A lobbying contact under 1602(8)(A) is any oral or written communication to a covered executive branch or covered legislative branch official, made on behalf of a client, about federal legislation; the formulation or adoption of a federal rule, regulation, executive order, program, policy or position; the administration or execution of a federal program, including contracts, grants, loans, permits and licenses; or a Senate-confirmed nomination.

Section 1602(8)(B) then lists nineteen exceptions. Several of them account for a great deal of ordinary advocacy that people assume is lobbying and is not: testimony before a committee or submitted for a public hearing record; information provided in writing in response to a covered official’s request for specific information; a written comment filed in a public proceeding; a response to a Federal Register notice soliciting public comment, directed to the designated agency official; speeches, articles and publicly distributed material; communications by a media representative gathering news; and administrative requests such as asking for a meeting or the status of an action, provided they include no attempt to influence.

Covered officials are defined in 1602(3) and 1602(4). On the executive side: the President and Vice President, Executive Office of the President staff, officers and employees in Executive Schedule levels I through V, uniformed officers at pay grade O-7 and above, and employees in confidential or policy-making positions. On the legislative side: Members, elected officers of either chamber, and employees of Members, committees, leadership and caucuses. Career federal employees below Executive Schedule level V and outside the Executive Office of the President are not covered officials. Neither are the courts, and neither are state or local officials.

Registration thresholds, and the numbers currently in effect

Even where there is a lobbyist, registration is not required below de minimis amounts set in 1603(a)(3). The statutory base figures are $2,500 and $10,000, adjusted for inflation every fourth year and rounded to the nearest $500.

The figures in effect since January 1, 2025, and applicable through 2028, are:

• $3,500 — a lobbying firm’s total income for matters related to lobbying activities on behalf of a particular client, in a quarterly period.
• $16,000 — an organization’s total expenses in connection with its own lobbying activities, in a quarterly period.

The next adjustment takes effect January 1, 2029. Note the difference in who registers: a lobbying firm registers per client, while an organization with in-house lobbyists files a single registration covering all of its employee lobbyists for each client on whose behalf they act.

The deadlines

Registration is due no later than 45 days after a lobbyist first makes a lobbying contact or is employed or retained to make one, whichever comes first. Quarterly LD-2 reports are due within 20 days of the end of each quarter — January 20, April 20, July 20 and October 20. Semiannual LD-203 contribution reports are due 30 days after each half-year, on January 30 and July 30, and cover political contributions of $200 or more, payments honoring covered officials, presidential library and inaugural contributions, and a certification of compliance with House and Senate gift and travel rules.

Penalties, and who actually enforces

Section 1606 provides a civil fine of up to $200,000 for knowingly failing to remedy a defective filing within 60 days of notice or to comply with any other provision, and up to five years’ imprisonment for knowingly and corruptly failing to comply. The $200,000 figure is not inflation-indexed, unlike the registration thresholds.

Neither the Clerk of the House nor the Secretary of the Senate can write substantive regulations, issue binding opinions, or enforce the Act; section 1607(c) expressly withholds general audit and investigative authority. Their role is to notify the filer in writing and, if there is no appropriate response within 60 days, to refer the matter to the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.

The Government Accountability Office reports annually on compliance. Its June 2026 report found that the U.S. Attorney’s office received 12,391 referrals covering filing years 2016 through 2025, with roughly 46 percent resolved as compliant by the end of 2025, and no civil or criminal enforcement actions taken against lobbyists in 2025. In GAO’s sample, an estimated 94 percent of quarterly filers could document their reported income or expenses.

Four things registration does not mean

It does not restrict anything. Section 1607(b) states that nothing in the Act prohibits lobbying activities or contacts by any person, whether or not that person is in compliance with it, and 1607(a) preserves the First Amendment rights to petition, to express opinions and to associate.

It is not the Foreign Agents Registration Act. FARA is administered by the Justice Department and covers agents of foreign principals; it requires registration within ten days of the agreement and carries penalties up to five years and $250,000. A communication on behalf of a foreign government or foreign political party that is disclosed under FARA is expressly excluded from the definition of a lobbying contact.

It is not a state registration. The LDA is federal only; every state runs its own regime, with its own definitions, thresholds and filers, and registering federally satisfies none of them.

And it is not settled forever. Two bills expanding LDA disclosure of FARA-exempt status passed the Senate by unanimous consent in December 2025 and were sitting at the House desk as of this writing.

Why this matters before you hire anyone

The common failure is not a firm that refuses to register. It is an organization that did not realize its own vice president of public affairs crossed 20 percent in a quarter, because nobody counted the preparation. The test runs on a three-month clock, applies individual by individual and client by client, and the measurement is of activities, not conversations.

This piece describes what the statute says; it is not legal advice, and Apollo Counsel is a government relations firm rather than a law firm. Questions about how the Act applies to a particular organization or individual should go to counsel.