Marcus Berger wrote:
> Well... I'm still waiting for the answer to my fundamental
> question. What's the REAL lobbying status of USMA?
If you want to know that, I would suggest you ask a member of the USMA
board. As you probably know, all their names are on the USMA site.
Most non-profit associations are registered as 501(c)(3) corporations, which
have some limited lobbying rights. USC 501(h) provides for some extended
rights, but an organization has to specifically apply for that. There is
something called a 501(c)(4) corporation, which has practically unlimited
rights to lobby for a specific cause. However, that classification is
limited to certain social welfare groups characterized as "action
organizations." Not being a lawyer, I have no idea whether the USMA would
qualify as such a group.
Although it doesn't answer the question of how USMA is registered, the
information at http://www.paperglyphs.com/nporegulation/lobbying.html is
quite informative. It deals with both lobbying and political activity. As
it's extremely unlikely that the USMA would ever want to endorse political
candidates, only the lobbying part of that would apply.
In all of this dialog, nobody has been in a position to clarify whether or
not the USMA actually engages in lobbying (as opposed to simply cooperating
with government departments). Again, only the USMA itself can answer this.
As an ordinary member, I cannot.
If you are really interested in the USMA's own statement of its relationship
with government agencies and its influence on legislation, I suggest you
read item 1 at http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/overview.htm. I wonder if
Andy Johnson (aka Eddie Lechat) has actually looked at that page.
Bill Potts, CMS
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
