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Lobbying Data Summary

Sections
  1. Summary
  2. Lobbying Primer
  3. Trends in Spending
  4. Business, Labor & Ideological Split
  5. Top Spenders
  6. Top Lobbying Firms
  7. Top Lobbyists
  8. Ranked Sectors
  9. Industries
  10. Recent Registrations
  11. Top Contracts
  12. Top Issues
  13. Top Agencies
  14. Bills
  15. Contributions
  16. Top Contributors
  17. Top Recipients
  18. Methodology
  19. In the News
  20. Foreign Lobby Watch
  21. Read More

Companies, labor unions, trade associations and other influential organizations spend billions of dollars each year to lobby Congress and federal agencies. Some special interests retain lobbying firms, many of them located along Washington's legendary K Street; others have lobbyists working in-house. We've got totals spent on lobbying, beginning in 1998, for everyone from AAI Corp. to Zurich Financial. (See also: Foreign Lobby Watch.)

Total Spending & Lobbyists

Graph color  See numbers adjusted for inflation

*The number of unique, registered lobbyists who have actively lobbied.

NOTE: Figures on this page are calculations by the Center for Responsive Politics based on data from the Senate Office of Public Records. Data for the most recent year was downloaded on July 23, 2019 and includes spending from January 1 - June 30. Prior years include spending from January through December.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: info[at]crp.org