Welcome to Lobbying 101

Understanding, hiring, and working with lobbyists.

This blog is more about how to work with lobbyists than it is about the lobbying industry itself, or the lobbying activities that tend to end up in the news.  The main goal is to offer practical, usable advice for people who need a lobbyist – or think they might.

So if you’re trying to find information on working with lobbyists – such as exactly how they can help you, how much they charge, or how to find a good one – I hope you’ll find something here that will help.

Most of the content is in the pages, not the posts.  It’s intended to be fairly “sticky” information, and although I may occasionally update some parts of this blog to reflect changes in the world (changes in lobbying rules, etc.), and I may occasionally post entries pointing to articles or other information about working with lobbyists, I don’t scour the news for information about lobbyists, and I don’t intend to post on a regular basis.  I will read comments regularly, though, so if you have information you think would be helpful to add, or feedback on any of the information, please leave a comment.

I may also update the links and the resources page (after I create it, that is), and I may eventually add some additional RSS feeds to the front page; so if you’re looking for more up-to-date information on lobbying, eventually you’ll be able to find some of it reflected here.

Good luck!

2008 lobbying spending up 13% over 2007

Lobbying disclosures for the last quarter of 2008 were due on January 20, and the Center for Responsive Politics has updated figures for 2008.  Here are some highlights:

Total Lobbying Spending

1998 $1.44 Billion 1999 $1.44 Billion 2000 $1.54 Billion 2001 $1.63 Billion 2002 $1.81 Billion 2003 $2.04 Billion 2004 $2.17 Billion 2005 $2.42 Billion 2006 $2.60 Billion 2007 $2.84 Billion 2008 $3.23 Billion

Number of Lobbyists

1998 10,690 1999 13,341 2000 12,763 2001 12,077 2002 12,347 2003 13,161 2004 13,403 2005 14,440 2006 14,874 2007 15,329 2008 14,453

Top Spenders	Total
US Chamber of Commerce	$91,595,000
Exxon Mobil	$29,000,000
AARP	$27,900,000
PG&E Corp	$27,250,000
Northrop Grumman	$20,743,252
American Medical Assn	$20,555,000
Pharmaceutical Rsrch & Mfrs of America	$20,220,000
American Hospital Assn	$19,652,914
General Electric	$19,418,000
Verizon Communications	$18,190,000
National Assn of Realtors	$17,340,000
Boeing Co	$16,610,000
Lockheed Martin	$15,821,506
Koch Industries	$15,450,000
AT&T Inc	$15,076,675
National Cable & Telecommunications Assn	$14,420,000
Southern Co	$14,080,000
General Motors	$14,071,000
Blue Cross/Blue Shield	$13,951,699
Business Roundtable	$13,320,000

Top Lobbying Firms	Total
Patton Boggs LLP	$38,910,000
Akin, Gump et al	$34,520,000
Van Scoyoc Assoc	$25,205,000
Cassidy & Assoc	$23,320,000
Ogilvy Government Relations	$20,760,000
Dutko Worldwide	$20,260,000
Hogan & Hartson	$17,890,000
BGR Holding	$17,750,000
Williams & Jensen	$16,280,000
Quinn, Gillespie & Assoc	$16,240,000
Podesta Group	$15,930,000
K&L Gates	$15,035,000
Holland & Knight	$14,740,000
Brownstein, Hyatt et al	$14,690,000
Altria Client Services	$13,840,000
PMA Group	$13,535,000
Ernst & Young	$12,905,556
DLA Piper	$11,670,000
Cornerstone Government Affairs	$11,110,000
Carmen Group	$11,050,000

Top Issues	No. of Reports
Fed Budget & Appropriations	4,741
Defense	2,005
Health Issues	1,872
Taxes	1,766
Energy & Nuclear Power	1,350
Transportation	1,343
Environment & Superfund	1,104
Education	1,087
Trade	982
Medicare & Medicaid	981

Top Industry Sectors	Total
Health	$478,530,500
Finance, Insurance & Real Estate	$453,488,163
Misc Business	$450,346,073
Energy & Natural Resources	$393,270,145
Communications/Electronics	$370,915,883
Transportation	$253,393,889
Other	$246,634,588
Defense	$148,355,183
Ideological/Single-Issue	$144,772,257
Agribusiness	$130,736,286
Construction	$55,884,872
Labor	$36,971,276
Lawyers & Lobbyists	$31,666,476

Top Industries	Total
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	$230,926,704
Electric Utilities	$156,719,032
Insurance	$153,230,002
Oil & Gas	$133,158,191
Business Associations	$128,103,938
Computers/Internet	$117,125,113
Education	$102,006,538
TV/Movies/Music	$97,501,747
Hospitals/Nursing Homes	$96,698,287
Securities & Investment	$92,040,635
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing	$91,939,093
Air Transport	$90,799,331
Civil Servants/Public Officials	$84,150,467
Health Professionals	$82,305,968
Real Estate	$79,981,581
Automotive	$65,532,696
Telecom Services & Equipment	$64,001,301
Health Services/HMOs	$62,722,992
Misc Issues	$62,447,086
Misc Energy	$58,805,314

A few highlights:

• From 2007 to 2008:
  • Total lobbying spending: +13%
  • U.S. GDP: +4 1/2%
  • Number of lobbyists: -6%
  • Revenue per lobbyist: +20%
• Since 2001:
  • Total lobbying spending: +98%
  • U.S. GDP: +42%
    • So lobbying spending has grown at more than twice the rate of the U.S. GDP
  • Number of lobbyists: +20%
  • Revenue per lobbyist: +65%
• Appropriations are by far the most common type of lobbying projects
  • Yet earmarks make up only about 1% of the total federal budget

Note: OpenSecrets.org has an error right now preventing me from getting a list of the top agencies lobbied in 2008.  The House and Senate are guaranteed to be at the top of the list, but I’ll add the list of top agencies into this post after their site corrects the problem.

Top 25 Lobbying Firms (2007)

From the National Journal:

Total federal lobbying spending hit $2.79 billion in 2007, up 7.7 percent from $2.59 billion in 2006, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. The total is based on the semi-annual reports that all registered lobbyists, lobbying firms, and corporations submit to Congress under the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act. Under amendments passed in 2007, beginning this year lobbyists and firms must report twice as often-every quarter.

For the fifth year in a row, law and lobbying firm Patton Boggs came in at No. 1, reporting $42.5 million in fees, an increase of 23 percent from 2006.

The No. 2 firm last year was Akin Gump, posting fees of $32 million, up 25 percent from 2006.

• Full article