Lobbying Expenses

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on grassroots lobbying expenses reported by charitable organizations. GAO noted that: (1) the data presented understates total grassroots lobbying expenditures, since charitable organizations do not report their lobbying expenses unless they elect to be subject to a certain tax code provision; (2) churches and church-affiliated groups do not file tax returns; (3) for tax years 1993 and 1994, charitable organizations filed 174,260 tax returns, of which 1,101 reported lobbying expenses; and (4) these organizations' lobbying expenses totalled $43.3 million, of which $8.3 million pertained to grassroots lobbying activities.