Lobbying disclosure reports
Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, lobbying firms and organisations with in-house lobbyists file a report every quarter naming the client, the amount of money involved, the issues lobbied and the parts of government contacted. The reports do not say which members of Congress were contacted or what was asked for.
In brief
- Reports are due about 20 days after each quarter ends.
- Amounts are estimates rounded to the nearest $10,000.
- A firm reports income from a client; a company lobbying for itself reports its spending.
- The report names the House, the Senate or an agency, never an individual lawmaker.
- Lobbying is legal and protected; the reports show its scale.
What is a lobbying report?
A lobbying report is a quarterly filing, known as form LD-2, made to the Senate and the House under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. A lobbying firm files one for each client. A company, union or association that employs its own lobbyists files one for itself.
Registration is required once the money passes a threshold: more than $3,500 of income from a client in a quarter for a firm, or more than $16,000 of lobbying spending in a quarter for an organisation with in-house lobbyists (figures in force since January 1, 2025; House Clerk). Below that, nothing is filed.
What does a report show?
- Registrant and client. Who did the lobbying and for whom. When a company lobbies for itself they are the same.
- An amount. Income (for a firm) or expenses (for in-house lobbying), as a good-faith estimate rounded to the nearest $10,000. Small amounts are reported only as "less than $5,000".
- Issue areas. General codes such as taxation, defence or health, with a short description of the specific bills or rules.
- Who was contacted, at the level of institutions. "U.S. Senate", "House of Representatives", "Department of Energy".
- The lobbyists' names, and any senior government job they held before.
What does it leave out?
The report does not name the senators, representatives or staff who were contacted. It does not say what the lobbyist asked for, which side of a bill they were on, or whether they got it. And it covers only "lobbying" as the law defines it: advice, public relations, advertising and grassroots campaigns are outside it, and a person counts as a lobbyist only if lobbying takes up at least a fifth of their time for that client.
Reported lobbying is therefore a floor on what an interest spends to influence Washington, not the whole of it.
Can lobbying amounts be added together?
With care. A company that lobbies for itself and also hires three outside firms appears in four sets of reports. Its own report states its total lobbying spending, which already includes what it paid the firms; the firms' reports state the same fees again as their income. Adding all four counts the fees twice.
Amended reports are another trap, since an amendment repeats the whole filing. This site keeps one row per registrant, client and period, the most recently posted, so a corrected report replaces the original and is not added to it.
What does this site show?
Filings posted since October 2025, read from the official lobbying disclosure site: the largest clients and lobbying firms by reported amount, the newest filings, and lobbying by issue. There are 117,282 filings on the lobbying page today, each linked to its record. Company pages show lobbying filed under the same name as the company.
Names are matched exactly as written, so a subsidiary that lobbies under its own name is not folded into its parent.
Questions and answers
What is an LD-2 lobbying report?
An LD-2 is the quarterly report a lobbying firm or an organisation with in-house lobbyists files under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. It names the client, the amount, the issues and the institutions contacted.
Do lobbying reports say which lawmakers were lobbied?
No. A report lists the House, the Senate or a federal agency as the body contacted. It does not name individual members of Congress or staff.
How accurate are reported lobbying amounts?
They are good-faith estimates rounded to the nearest $10,000, and they cover only activity the law defines as lobbying, so they understate total spending on influence.
Is lobbying legal?
Yes. Petitioning the government is protected by the First Amendment. The Lobbying Disclosure Act does not restrict lobbying; it requires paid lobbying above a threshold to be reported.
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