The White House has made several changes to its rules governing contacts between registered lobbyists and federal officials about economic-stimulus projects, which had been protested by some nonprofit groups.

The rules, designed to curtail the influence of special interests on spending decisions, barred registered lobbyists from having any oral communications with government officials about specific stimulus projects.

Norm Eisen, the White House ethics adviser, announced the following changes in a blog entry:

• The rules will now apply to everyone, not just registered lobbyists. Some groups had argued it was discriminatory to restrict lobbyists but not other people, like big campaign donors, who could influence decisions.

• The ban on oral communications will apply only during the period after competitive grant applications have been submitted and before the awards have been made. “Once such applications are on file, the competition should be strictly on the merits,” Mr. Eisen said, adding that further comments should be posted on the Internet for everyone to see.

• Federal officials must continue to file reports of all conversations with registered lobbyists, including those that take place in the pre-application phase, on the Internet.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, one of the groups that protested the original rules, praised the changes.

“With this new restriction, the White House has leveled the playing field to ensure that corporate bigwigs and major donors who do not register as lobbyists do not benefit from an inside track unavailable to those less politically influential,” Melanie Sloan, executive director, said in a blog post.