Newt Gingrich lobbied Congress to pass the Medicare drug-benefit bill, as I pointed out in my column today, but he never registered as a lobbyist. A few people have asked me if there is any legal problem with this. Did Newt do anything wrong by not registering?
In brief: probably not. The law that covers most federal lobbying is the Lobbying Disclosure Act. My understanding of the law, is that individual lobbyists don’t have to register unless they spend 20% of their time on “lobbying activities,” which includes “Lobbying contacts and any efforts in support of such contacts.” We have no idea how much of his time Gingrich spent on lobbying or how much time he spent on other things.
The legal question, in my mind is a distraction. It matters that Newt lobbied, for two reasons:
1) Gingrich has repeatedly claimed he has never lobbied. It’s important to point out that he’s not telling the truth.
2) He lobbied to pass a bill that expanded Medicare, yet he poses as a strict fiscal conservative who adheres to the Constitution.
