Put aside the balloons and the baby kissing: The surest sign that it’s an election year is an increase in lobbyist spending. The Direct Marketing Association, which spent $800,000 on these activities throughout all of 2007, nearly matched that during the first six months of 2008. As of June 30 it spent $750,000, with the general election four months away.
During the past year and a half, the DMA has lobbied on behalf of a variety of bills, both in the House and Senate. The issues covered by them include: the confidentiality and dissemination of Social Security numbers and other personal data; telemarketing practices and restrictions; cyber security and anti-spyware legislation; and inappropriate access to telephone records.
Under taxation and Internal Revenue Code issues, the DMA has been active in attempting to influence a variety of tax simplification, state taxation and interstate commerce taxation issues, including the collection of sales and use taxes.
The lobbying records also include a catchall under postal-related activity that doesn’t feature specific bills, instead indicating the DMA would attempt to influence “Any legislative matter impacting the implementation of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.”
In a separate document, the DMA outlined its positions on several of these issues. Speaking generally, it opposes granting the FTC broader rulemaking authority; supports safe Internet use; strongly opposes remote taxation and Internet regulation such as net neutrality; supports personal data security breach notification requirements; is seeking to protect marketers’ use of Social Security numbers for verification purposes; and supports increasing penalties for the use of spyware and malware, but is keeping a wary eye, lest these regulations have an impact on legitimate marketers.
The lobbying records also reflect changes in the DMA’s lobbying staff: Steven Berry and James Conway, who had been listed as lobbyists a year ago, are no longer counted among their numbers. Xenia Boone, Jerry Cerasale, Thomas Foulkes and Mark Micali, were, as of a mid-July filing, although Micali was listed as an individual no longer expected to act as a lobbyist past the filing date.
Linda A. Woolley joined the DMA as executive vice president of government affairs in mid-August. Woolley, who is based in DMA’s Washington, DC office, is responsible for managing the advocacy, legislative, and political efforts of the association.
Woolley, an attorney, was most recently the principal of LegisLaw, a public affairs and government relations consulting firm she founded in 1999. Before that, she was director of public affairs for ITT Industries, a spin-off company of ITT Corporation.
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