NASHVILLE – After a tentative move in 2008 to require more people advocating positions on legislation to register as lobbyists, the Tennessee Ethics Commission has retreated and now interprets state law so that some can avoid disclosing expenses related to influencing lawmakers.
Such interpretations may further have softened the scope of Tennessee’s laws on lobbying, which a recent national study found lacking in some respects in disclosure of lobbyist spending.
For example, the interpretation affected the Tennessee Center for Policy Research in this year’s legislative session.
The center staunchly advocated tort reform as Gov. Bill Haslam was pushing the idea in the General Assembly.
The group set up a website named focus577.org, for a TCRP study declaring that tort reform would produce 577 new jobs per week in Tennessee. The group aired radio commercials and erected billboards statewide urging residents to contact their legislators in support of tort reform. The website asked visitors to sign a petition to lawmakers.