ABSTRACT
Ask any defense executive about their compan's adherence to lobbying laws and rules. Just as only a fraction of a percent of companies use lobbyists, a similarly tiny fraction even tries to understand the governing law and policy better. Review of the law can provide practical annual training to leadership teams if for no other reason than to periodically revisit the discussion of the teams talent distribution in this area. Piecing the definitions together, an executive can see that they or their employees may be lobbying, but not calling it lobbying and therefore not reporting it as lobbying. Annually, the General Accountability Office (GAO) conducts a random review of lobbying compliance reports required of the LDA. Lobbying compliance among registered lobbyists remains above 90% since GAO began this annual review. The most sophisticated companies that effectively sequence their communications across government while leveraging timing and relationships use lobbying as a tool.
