Lobbying spending didn’t move much in 2010, group finds

The center analyzed currently available 2010 lobbying reports and found $3.47 billion spent on lobbying by businesses and other organizations. 

That number should rise at least a bit, as the center estimates around 90 percent of last year’s fourth-quarter filings are now available. A record $3.49 trillion was spent on federal lobbying in 2009.

Sheila Krumholz, the executive director of the nonpartisan group, said lobbyists still played a prominent role in Washington, even if their intensity may have hit something of a wall in 2010.

“Lobbying on the top priorities of President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats reached a fever pitch in 2009, when the bulk of the work was done on an economic stimulus package, climate change legislation, health insurance reforms, financial regulatory reforms, student loan reforms and more,” Krumholz said in a statement. 

The center also cautioned that some organizations changed how they reported expenditures in 2010, using either broader or narrower ranges. 

On a more micro level, the center also found that:

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent roughly 9 percent less on lobbying last year than it did in 2009. But, at $132.1 million, it still paid out far more than any other group on lobbying.

• FedEx (56 percent) and General Electric (49 percent) were among the companies that greatly expanded their spending on lobbying, while Pfizer (48 percent) reported a sharp decrease. (FedEx has recently been involved in a lobbying scrum with UPS.)

• And six lobbying firms — Patton Boggs; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; the Podesta Group; Van Scoyoc Associates; Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck; and Cassidy and Associates — all brought in at least $20 million in 2010 lobbying income.