A person must register with the Commission if the person:

• Makes expenditures over a certain amount in a calendar quarter (more than $940 for 2024 and $970 for 2025) involving a state official or employee or their immediate families to communicate to influence legislation or administrative action; OR

• Is compensated - or entitled to be compensated under an agreement - more than a certain amount in a calendar quarter (more than $1,870 in 2024 and $1,930 for 2025) to communicate directly with a member of the legislative or executive branch to influence legislation or administrative action on behalf of the person’s client or employer.
• HOWEVER, if the person has not spent more than 40 hours in a calendar quarter either communicating or preparing to communicate (e.g. strategy sessions, review and analysis of legislation or administrative matters, research, or communication with a client concerning lobbying strategy) the person is not required to register under the compensation threshold.
• A person who does not directly communicate with a member of the legislative or executive branch to influence legislation or administrative action is not required to register only because of compensation received for preparing to do so.

If you cross one of the two thresholds, you must register.

If you have already registered, then there are no further thresholds to meet. Reminder: During a regular legislative session, the deadline to add new clients or new subject matters to your existing registration is within 5 days of first communicating (legislation passed in 2011). If not in session, then you must add by the next reporting deadline.

Also note that when you register as a lobbyist, there is an option to report expenditures monthly or annually, and the thresholds for that are changing as well on January 1, 2025. The threshold at or below which you may file expenditures on an annual basis is indexing to $2220 in 2025 (up from $2150 in 2024). That means you can report your lobby expenditures annually if you do not think you will exceed $2220. (Sec. 305.0063). And note that the Commission adopted a rule (Rule 34.82) stating that the $2220 includes all the expenditures you would typically think of as lobby expenditures and also includes expenditures for mass media – that is all lobby expenditures under Sec. 305.006(b) and (c).

PAAT Extra: The yearly reindexing is pretty cumbersome for both the lobby and the Commission, so there will certainly be some discussion about changing this during the Commission Sunset Review process this session.