Congressional officials have amended new guidelines for those trying to terminate a lobbying registration - saying that lobbyists can deregister if they don't "reasonably expect" to make any future direct contacts.

The amendment reverses a provision in guidelines issued June 9, which said that a lobbyist could end a registration if he or she limited direct "lobbying contacts" to no more than one during any three-month period.

The opportunity to end LDA-registered status by refraining from any future contacts is a change from previous interpretations of the lobbying law, experts said, but it is not as big a loophole as the one created by the June 9 guidance document.

Attorney Kenneth Gross of the firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom told BNA June 17 that he thought the latest interpretation of registration requirements would stick because it was "reasonable," even if it differed from the previously accepted interpretation of the LDA.

"I don't know how many people it's going to affect," Gross added, saying that it might be hard for someone to continue doing lobbying work while promising to make no future direct contacts with lawmakers or other LDA-covered officials.

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