SF-LLL Disclosure of Lobbying Activities: Who Files and When

If your organization spends its own money to lobby a federal official about a grant, contract, cooperative agreement, loan, or loan guarantee, the SF-LLL Disclosure of Lobbying Activities filing requirements apply once the federal award crosses $100,000 (or $150,000 for loans and loan guarantees). You file the form with your application, and again at the end of any calendar quarter in which a material change happens. Miss it, and civil penalties run from $10,000 to $100,000 per violation.¹

Who Has to File

Three conditions have to line up before the SF-LLL applies. Your organization is seeking or has received a covered federal award. The award exceeds the dollar threshold: $100,000 for grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements, or $150,000 for federal loans and loan guarantees. And your organization has paid, or agreed to pay, non-federal funds to someone to influence a federal official about that award.²

“Influencing” here means paying a person to contact a Member of Congress, a congressional staffer, or an officer or employee of a federal agency to shape the outcome of a covered federal action. Covered federal actions are awarding a grant, entering into a cooperative agreement, issuing a contract, making a loan, or providing a loan guarantee.¹ The requirement flows down through every tier of sub-recipients, so sub-grantees and subcontractors with sub-awards above the threshold face the same test.

Certification Is Not the Same as Disclosure

Most of the confusion around SF-LLL starts here. The Byrd Amendment, 31 U.S.C. § 1352, creates two separate obligations. Every applicant for a covered award above the threshold signs a lobbying certification stating it has not used, and will not use, appropriated federal funds to pay anyone to influence a federal official about that award. That certification sits inside most grant application packages and gets signed as a matter of routine.¹

The SF-LLL is a different animal. You file it only if your organization has spent or committed non-federal money on lobbying tied to the award. The certification says you didn’t use federal dollars. The SF-LLL says you did use your own dollars, and here are the details. If you haven’t hired an outside firm or paid anyone to lobby on your behalf about the federal action, you sign the certification and skip the SF-LLL.²

What Does Not Count as Lobbying

Two statutory exemptions keep ordinary grant work outside the disclosure requirement.

The first covers professional and technical services rendered directly in preparing, submitting, or negotiating a bid, proposal, or application for a federal award. Paying a grant writer, consultant, or your own staff to put a competitive proposal together is not lobbying, even though the work aims at getting the award. The exemption also covers payments for meeting requirements imposed by law as a condition of receiving the award. The compensation has to be reasonable, meaning in line with what the private sector normally pays for comparable work.¹

The second covers agency and legislative liaison activities not directly related to a specific covered federal action. Staff attending a congressional hearing on broad policy, or talking with agency officials about general program matters rather than pushing for a particular award, fall outside the disclosure requirement.¹

What the Form Asks For

SF-LLL is a single-page form. You can download it from the General Services Administration or through agency portals.³ Every field carries weight. In order, the form asks for:

The type of federal action: contract, grant, cooperative agreement, loan, loan guarantee, or loan insurance.
The status of that action: bid/offer/application stage, initial award, or post-award.
The report type: initial filing, or material change (with the year and quarter of the change and the date of the previous filing).
Your organization’s name, address, and congressional district, and whether you are the prime recipient or a sub-awardee (and if a sub-awardee, your tier).
The prime recipient’s name and address, if you are a sub-awardee.
The awarding agency name, federal program title, and Assistance Listing Number (formerly the CFDA number).
The contract or grant number, if one has been assigned.
The total dollar value of the federal award.
The name, address, and contact information for the lobbying firm or individual.
The names of the individuals who performed the lobbying, and any prior covered government positions they held.

The authorized official signs and dates it. That signature certifies the information as accurate and constitutes a material representation of fact the federal government relies on. Filing false information can bring criminal prosecution for making false statements.

When to File and When to Update

The initial SF-LLL is due when you submit your application for the federal award. If the award comes without a prior application or bid, you file on receipt of the award.²

After that, you file an updated SF-LLL at the end of any calendar quarter in which a material change occurs. The regulations recognize three kinds of material change:

A cumulative increase of $25,000 or more in the amount paid or expected to be paid for lobbying since the last report.
A change in the person or individuals doing the lobbying.
A change in the federal officials, Members of Congress, or staffers being contacted.

If nothing material changes during a quarter, you file nothing for that quarter.⁴ When you do file a material change, reference the date of the previously submitted form so the agency can follow the sequence.

Sub-Recipient Flow-Down

Prime grantees carry obligations that go past their own filing. You must include the lobbying certification language in the award documents of every sub-award at every tier: subcontracts, sub-grants, and contracts under grants or cooperative agreements. Each sub-recipient independently certifies it has not used federal funds for lobbying, and files its own SF-LLL if it spent non-federal funds on lobbying tied to the award.⁵

When a sub-awardee files, it checks the “Subawardee” box in Item 4 and enters the prime recipient’s name and address in Item 5. Monitoring that compliance falls to the prime. In practice, that means writing the certification and disclosure requirements into sub-award agreements and following up to collect completed forms on time. Audit findings for missing sub-recipient filings tend to land on the prime.

Penalties for Missing or False Filings

The Byrd Amendment creates two separate violations, each carrying civil penalties between $10,000 and $100,000 per occurrence. The first is spending appropriated federal funds on lobbying. The second is failing to file or amend the required certification or disclosure.¹ The statutory amounts are periodically adjusted upward for inflation through Federal Register rulemaking, so the effective penalty range at the time of a violation may be higher than the base figures.

Money is not the only exposure. Federal agencies can pursue disallowed costs, adverse audit findings, increased oversight, and in serious cases suspension or debarment from future federal awards.⁶ Debarment shuts an organization out of federal funding for a set period, which for many nonprofits and contractors is a heavier blow than any single fine.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 1352 – Limitation on Use of Appropriated Funds to Influence Certain Federal Contracting and Financial Transactions
2
eCFR. 49 CFR Part 20 – New Restrictions on Lobbying
3
U.S. General Services Administration. Disclosure of Lobbying Activities
4
eCFR. 2 CFR Part 418 – New Restrictions on Lobbying
5
U.S. Department of State. Lobbying Disclosure and Certification
6
Federal Student Aid (FSA). Reminder Regarding Prohibited Use of Federal Grants Funds for Lobbying and Allowable Membership Costs