Lobbying

The other way to buy a vote

Campaign money gets a politician elected. Lobbying money tells them what to do once they are there. Every lobbyist has to file with the Senate four times a year saying who paid them, how much, and which bills they worked. This section follows 68 of the biggest clients in the industries this site tracks, 2021–2026, and the lobbying behind every key vote on the Votes pages.

Spent on lobbying

$3.49B

by 68 tracked clients, 2021–2026

Biggest spender

National Association of Realtors

$382M · Real estate and construction

Through hired firms

24%

$837M paid to K Street firms; the rest spent in-house

Revolving door

2,397

of 8,777 lobbyists in these filings used to work in Congress or the executive branch

Pharma and health care outspent everyone, $523M across 5 companies and trade groups. Compare that with what the same industry gave to candidates and super PACs on the Industries page: lobbying is usually the bigger number, and it never shows up in a campaign finance report.

Lobbying by industry, year by year

Reported lobbying spend by the tracked clients in each industry. An election year is not a quiet year on K Street.

Pharma and health care

5 clients

$523M

Tech and AI

5 clients

$505M

Real estate and construction

5 clients

$473M

Telecom and media

5 clients

$452M

Defense contractors

5 clients

$341M

Insurance

5 clients

$297M

Oil, gas and coal

5 clients

$265M

Wall Street and hedge funds

5 clients

$172M

Tobacco, alcohol and gambling

5 clients

$159M

Labor unions

5 clients

$87M

Gun lobby

4 clients

$70M

Agriculture, food and retail

5 clients

$67M

Crypto

5 clients

$53M

Pro-Israel groups

4 clients

$25M

Yellow bars are election years.

The biggest clients

Top ten by reported spend, all years.

All 68 →

1National Association of RealtorsReal estate and construction$382M
2PhRMAPharma and health care$216M
3MetaTech and AI$150M
4AmazonTech and AI$121M
5ComcastTelecom and media$102M
6AltriaTobacco, alcohol and gambling$96M
7Lockheed MartinDefense contractors$94M
8VerizonTelecom and media$93M
9AmgenPharma and health care$91M
10AHIPInsurance$91M

Most lobbied key votes

The bills with the most money behind the reports that named them.

Every vote →

Halve Medicare drug prices (Sanders)$424M65 clients
PRO Act (union organising)$329M281 clients
Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act$328M53 clients
Farm, Food, and National Security Act$297M471 clients
Joint-employer rule repeal$280M83 clients

The revolving door

Lobbyists who used to work inside the government they now lobby.

Who they are →

Ex-members: 49
Ex-Hill staff: 2,092
Ex-executive: 256

Source: Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (lda.gov REST API)Lobbyists' covered positions, from Senate LDA filings. Spend is the amount on each quarterly report (a firm's income from the client, or an in-house registrant's expenses), latest amendment only. Clients are matched by name, so subsidiaries filing separately are not included. Covered positions are as the lobbyists wrote them. See About the data.