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House approves revised code on lobbying practices, clarifying volunteer-lobbyist rules
Summary
The House adopted a second substitute to House Resolution 3 refining definitions of 'government official' and 'volunteer lobbyist,' establishing complaint thresholds and prohibitions against threats or reprisals; the resolution passed 61–9.
On Feb. 4 the Utah House adopted a revised code on lobbying practices, approving a second substitute to House Resolution 3 that tightens definitions and sets a process for ethics complaints involving lobbyists.
Representative Cohen, sponsor, said the changes clarify who counts as a government official acting in an official capacity and define volunteer lobbyists and their exclusions. The resolution establishes that three legislators are required to file a complaint against a lobbyist, and it specifies components for finding prohibited conduct such as a tangible threat plus an inducement and a consequence. "There has to be those three in place," Cohen said, describing the threshold for political or economic reprisal.
Members debated whether the threshold and the definition of volunteer lobbyist could sweep in constituents or informal advocates. Cohen and others said the intent is not to punish ordinary citizens but to provide a code of conduct for people who come to lobby as representatives of organizations. The House passed the second substitute 61–9 and entered the action on the journal.
