DOGE Wants to Cut Government. $4.4 Billion in Lobbying Wants to Keep It.

The $4.4 Billion Machine

In 2024, federal lobbying hit an all-time record: $4.4 billion. That's $150 million more than 2023, continuing an upward trend that started in 2016. The number of registered lobbyists, the amount of money flowing through K Street, and the scope of issues being lobbied on — all at historic highs.

This isn't a coincidence. Lobbying spending tracks government spending. The bigger the federal budget, the more there is to fight over. When the government spends $6.7 trillion a year, every dollar becomes someone's revenue — and someone's lobbyist's job to protect.

Enter DOGE. Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has promised to find and eliminate waste across the federal government. They've targeted agencies, contracts, grants, and headcount. It's the most aggressive push to reduce government spending in decades.

But here's what DOGE is up against: every line item in the federal budget has a constituency. And that constituency has lobbyists.

Who Spends the Most — And Why They Care

The top lobbying spenders in America aren't abstract interest groups. They're the companies and industries that depend most heavily on federal spending, regulation, and contracts:

Notice a pattern? These are the same sectors that receive the most federal spending. Healthcare lobbies because Medicare and Medicaid are $1.5 trillion programs. Defense lobbies because the Pentagon budget is $886 billion. Energy lobbies because federal land leases and subsidies are worth hundreds of billions.

Lobbying isn't about ideology. It's about revenue protection.

The DOGE Paradox

Here's the fundamental tension: DOGE's mission is to cut government waste. But "waste" is a matter of perspective. One person's waste is another person's contract. One agency's redundancy is an industry's lifeline.

Consider some of the programs DOGE has targeted:

• USAID foreign aid programs — Cut or frozen by DOGE. But foreign aid contractors spent millions lobbying to keep those programs funded. Every dollar of foreign aid flows through contractors, consultants, and NGOs — all of which have lobbyists.
• Federal workforce reductions — DOGE has pushed for mass layoffs and hiring freezes. But federal employee unions and the industries that serve government workers (IT contractors, office space, healthcare providers) are lobbying hard against cuts.
• Regulatory agencies — DOGE wants to streamline or eliminate agencies. But industries that benefit from regulation (compliance firms, consultants, law firms) lobby to keep the regulatory apparatus intact. Even industries that complain about regulation often prefer the devil they know.

The Revolving Door Makes It Worse

There's another layer to this: the revolving door between government and K Street. Thousands of lobbyists are former congressional staffers, agency officials, and even former members of Congress. They know the system intimately because they built it.

When DOGE tries to cut a program, the lobbyist defending it may be the person who wrote the legislation creating it. When DOGE targets an agency, the lobbyist fighting back may be the former deputy director. The institutional knowledge advantage is enormous.

Our Revolving Door tracker shows thousands of lobbyists who disclosed former government positions — from congressional schedulers to senior White House advisors — now working to influence the very institutions they used to run.

The Numbers Tell the Story

Lobbying spending has increased every single year since 2016:

Even in 2020 — during a global pandemic that shut down much of the economy — lobbying spendingincreased. When there's $2 trillion in emergency stimulus to fight over, lobbyists work overtime.

The question isn't whether DOGE can identify waste. It's whether any reform effort can overcome a $4.4 billion industry whose entire purpose is preventing exactly that.

What This Means for Taxpayers

Whether you support DOGE or oppose it, the lobbying numbers reveal an uncomfortable truth:the federal government has become so large that the industry of influencing it is itself a major economic force.

$4.4 billion a year isn't spent on lobbying because it doesn't work. It's spent because the return on investment is extraordinary. Studies have found that for every dollar spent on lobbying, companies see returns of $200 or more in tax benefits, contracts, and favorable regulation.

That's the real story: not that lobbying exists, but that it's so profitable. As long as the federal government controls $6.7 trillion in annual spending, there will always be someone willing to spend billions to influence where it goes.

DOGE may cut some programs. It may eliminate some agencies. But the lobbying machine will adapt, redirect, and find new levers to pull. It always does.

The question for taxpayers: is transparency the answer? If everyone can see who's lobbying for what, maybe the sunlight itself becomes the disinfectant. That's what we're building here.