Illinois Amends Lobbying Law
As of July 1, 2010, Illinois has adopted several amendments to its lobbying law and procurement code. Among other things, the state adopted a contingency-fee ban that specifically covers attempts to influence the outcome of a procurement decision. Second, in a change that has already made it into state contract packages, prospective contractors must disclose to the state any procurement lobbying costs and are forbidden from billing those costs to the state. Moreover, state officials are required to report to the public (through the Procurement Policy Board) communications made to influence procurement decisions. In conjunction with this added disclosure, lobbyists must submit to the state summaries of any oral communications made by them to state employees about procurements.
As of the publication of this newsletter, the state still had suspended its lobbying reporting system, although lobbyist registration is ongoing. See https://www.ilsos.gov/lobbyistweb/ for more information, or contact:
