By the Numbers: The Full Picture
We built OpenLobby to make federal lobbying data accessible to everyone. In the process, we assembled one of the most comprehensive lobbying datasets ever created. Here's what the numbers reveal about the scale of influence in American politics.
The Lobbying Industry at a Glance
The Growth Curve: More Money Every Year
One of the most striking patterns in the data is relentless growth. Lobbying spending has increased every year in our dataset, from $1.4 billion in 2018 to nearly $2 billion in 2024. The number of filings has grown from 66,516 to over 100,000 per year.
Lobbying Spending by Year
What's driving the growth? Every major policy debate attracts more lobbying. The pandemic brought healthcare and pharma lobbyists. AI regulation brought tech lobbyists. Trade wars brought manufacturing lobbyists. Climate policy brought energy lobbyists. The lobbying industry grows because government keeps making decisions that affect billions of dollars — and corporations keep paying to influence those decisions.
Who Spends the Most?
The top lobbying clients are a who's who of American corporate power. Healthcare and pharma lead, followed by tech, finance, defense, and energy. Our Top Clients page shows the full rankings, but the pattern is clear: the industries with the most to gain (or lose) from government decisions spend the most on lobbying.
Trade groups and industry associations are particularly effective lobbying vehicles. Organizations like PhRMA, the American Petroleum Institute, AHIP, and SIFMA allow entire industries to pool resources and lobby collectively — often outspending any individual company.
The 79 Battlegrounds
Federal lobbying covers 79 issue categories, from healthcare to defense to taxation. But spending is heavily concentrated in a handful of areas:
- Health Issues (HCR) — The #1 most-lobbied issue, with $2.7B+ in total spending
- Taxation (TAX) — Every industry lobbies on taxes. Every budget cycle triggers a spending surge.
- Budget/Appropriations (BUD) — Appropriations bills are where the money flows — and where lobbyists fight hardest
- Defense (DEF) — The military-industrial complex is alive and well-funded
- Trade (TRD) — Tariffs, trade agreements, and market access
The Revolving Door: 5,000 Former Officials
Our Revolving Door tracker identifies over 5,000 former government officials now registered as lobbyists. These aren't random bureaucrats — they're former chiefs of staff, committee directors, White House advisors, and agency heads who trade on their government connections.
As we documented in our Revolving Door Premium investigation, firms that employ former government officials earn 369% more revenue and attract 4.9x more clients than firms without revolving door connections. The message is clear: in the lobbying business, who you know is worth far more than what you know.
The Firms: K Street's Power Brokers
The 7,757 lobbying firms in our dataset range from one-person shops to massive multi-practice operations. The top firms — see the full rankings — handle hundreds of clients each and generate tens of millions in annual revenue.
Many of these firms are clustered on K Street in Washington, DC — the avenue that has become synonymous with lobbying. As we documented in our DC lobbying geography piece, the District of Columbia has $27,105 in lobbying spending per capita — 89x the national average.
Foreign Influence: 1,000+ Entities
Lobbying isn't just domestic. Over 1,000 foreign entities from dozens of countries lobby the US government, as we detailed in our Foreign Influence investigation. Countries like the UK, Japan, South Korea, and China all maintain significant lobbying operations in Washington.
The ROI That Makes It All Worth It
Why does the lobbying industry keep growing? Because it works. Our analyses have documented extraordinary returns on lobbying investment:
- Companies that lobby receive $49,536 in government contracts for every $1 spent on lobbying
- Academic research shows lobbying for tax provisions can yield a 22,000% return
- The 8,187x return documented by cross-referencing lobbying with contract data
When the return on investment is this high, the rational economic decision is always to lobby more. That's why the industry keeps growing — and why it will continue to grow unless the rules change.
What This Means for Democracy
The lobbying industrial complex is legal. It's protected by the First Amendment's right to petition the government. And in many cases, lobbyists provide genuine expertise that helps lawmakers make better decisions.
But the scale matters. When industries spend $37.7 billion on lobbying while individual citizens have no lobbyist, the playing field isn't level. When 5,000 former officials monetize their government service by lobbying their old colleagues, the revolving door undermines public trust. When the industries that spend the most on lobbying consistently get the policies they want, it's hard to argue that the system is working for everyone.
We built OpenLobby because we believe transparency is the first step toward accountability. Every filing in our database is public record. Every dollar disclosed. Every lobbyist named. The information has always been available — we just made it accessible.
The lobbying industrial complex thrives in darkness. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
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