S. 856 would amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to require lobbyists to identify any connection with a foreign government or political party that plans, supervises, directs, or controls any effort of that lobbyist, regardless of those entities’ financial contributions to the lobbying effort. CBO estimates that implementing the bill would not significantly increase the administrative costs of the House of Representatives or the Senate over the 2023-2028 period. Any related spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
Failure to disclose the newly required information could increase collections of civil fines, which are recorded in the budget as revenues. CBO estimates that those collections would not be significant in any year or over the 2023-2033 period because of the relatively small number of cases likely to be affected.
S. 856 would impose a private-sector mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) by requiring lobbyists to disclose information on foreign governments and foreign political parties that participate in or supervise their lobbying activities. CBO estimates that the cost of the mandate would not exceed the annual private-sector threshold established in UMRA ($206 million in 2025, adjusted annually for inflation).
S. 856 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in UMRA.
The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Matthew Pickford (for federal costs) and Andrew Laughlin (for mandates). The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
Phillip L. Swagel
Director, Congressional Budget Office