K Street big spenders keep up the pace so far in 2008

If the first-quarter figures presage the rest of 2008, big business and other special interests are poised to at least match their 2007 lobbying budgets.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $9.8 million on lobbying during the first quarter of this year, which keeps the business group the biggest spender on K Street.

{mosads}The Chamber’s first-quarter spending is nearly one-third of the $30.9 million the organization spent last year to influence federal policy.

The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform spent an additional $4.7 million during the first quarter. The Institute spent $21.9 million on lobbying last year.

The above spending contrasts with the issues the nation and, subsequently, Congress have been focused on — the housing and mortgage crisis, gasoline prices and other signs of a recession.

Nevertheless, the Chamber and the other heavyweights on K Street remained atop the rankings of the biggest spenders, according to The Hill’s review of House and Senate records on organizations that historically have ranked highly in annual lobbying spending.

Other top-ranking lobbying groups and corporations were the senior citizens’ lobby AARP ($7.2 million), AT&T ($5.2 million), the American Medical Association ($4.5 million), General Electric ($4.2 million) and General Motors ($4.1 million).

As individual corporations, AT&T, GE and GM stand out for their free-handed lobbying spending.

Typically, trade associations dedicate the most money to lobbying.

In some cases, though, a few members of big-money trade associations will make statements of their own through their lobbying budgets. During the first quarter, the drug company Eli Lilly spent almost as much as the industry’s trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

PhRMA spent $3.6 million compared to Lilly’s $2.9 million. Similarly, Pfizer ($2.8 million) and Amgen ($2.5 million) stood out among drug companies.

Beginning this year, organizations that employ or contract with lobbyists to represent them before Congress must submit reports every quarter detailing their spending. In prior years, these figures were made available every six months.

Lobbying activity typically is slow in the first few months of the year. With Congress barely active between New Year’s Day and the State of the Union address, special interests and their lobbyists simply have less to do. Moreover, presidential-election-year politics tend to limit Congress’s opportunities to move legislation — thus limiting special interests’ opportunities to affect policy.

Industries that have track records of generously spreading their cash around K Street appear set to continue that trend this year. Interests in the telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing and defense sectors dominated lobbying spending during the first quarter.

Despite the perennial nature of these sectors topping lists of lobbying spenders, current events can have an effect.

The bitter public standoff between aerospace and defense contractor Boeing and a rival alliance of Northrop Grumman and EADS North America has generated millions in lobbying spending.

Boeing spent $2.8 million in the quarter as part of its multifaceted lobbying and public-relations campaign to scuttle a $40 billion joint Northrop Grumman-EADS deal to supply the U.S. military with refueling tanker planes. Northrop Grumman has spent $3.3 million already this year, while the $1.1 million EADS has spent is almost half the $2.7 million it spent on lobbying for all of 2007.

Another aerospace and defense company made a splash in the quarter. Textron , which makes Cessna planes, Bell helicopters and sea, air and land vehicles for the military, spent a whopping $3.3 million the first quarter after spending a total of $5.4 million for all of 2007.

In the housing sphere, some of the richest organizations have pumped a little extra into their lobbying spending in response to intense congressional attention. The National Association of Home Builders spent $1.3 million in the quarter, compared to the $3.2 million it spent in 2007. Likewise, the Mortgage Bankers Association ’s $1 million quarterly lobbying outlay is close to half the $2.7 million it spent in 2007.

Dan Hayner contributed to this report.