• Amending the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); Develop a strategy to guide DCA legislative advocacy on the role of direct care workers in health care reform and in expanding workers' access to federal minimum wage and overtime protection. Advocating for establishment of federal/state training and education standards for direct care worker; HHS implementation around The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and the Direct Care Workforce Empowerment Act (H.R. 5902/S. 3696).

Duration: November 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011

General Issues: Labor Issues/Antitrust/Workplace, Health Issues, Budget/Appropriations

Spending: about $10,000 (But it's complicated. Here's why.)

It can be tricky to figure out how much an organization spent on a particular lobbying engagement. The law only requires lobbyists to report the amount they were paid for federal lobbying each quarter rounded to the nearest $10,000—and if it's less than $3,000 in a given quarter (or less than $13,000 for organizations with in-house lobbyists), they don't have to disclose it at all. Plus, some organizations include spending that doesn’t belong in the report—for instance, money spent lobbying state governments or other legal work.

Agencies lobbied since 2010: House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, Health & Human Services - Dept of (HHS), Labor - Dept of (DOL)