Q. Lobby / Lobbyist / Lobbyists / Lobbying / Legislative Advocacy

This quick guide offers some examples for learning about who, for example, is paying to minimize proxy access in publicly traded US companies.

Legislation

Investigate two important US statutes on transparency in lobby giving:

Honest Leadership and Open Government Act and Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.

Regulation

One way to know who is advocating for or against particular regulation is to check out the names of those who comment to proposed rules. One way to search for comments is at Regulations.gov.  Search by agency and type of document: public comment.

.gov Searching

The Senate Office of Public Records’ Lobbying Disclosure Act Database provides useful tools for searching through federal lobbyist filings (from 1999).  Learn which companies and organizations have contracted lobbyists to advance their legislative interests or seek federal funding.

Several possible searches include: all forms filed in a given time period, all activity by an individual lobbyist or lobbying firm, or all lobbying activity that was hired by a given client or firm.

Search the Lobbying Database (LD-1, LD-2)
Download a Lobbying Documents Database

Search the Contributions Database (LD-203)
Downloadable Contributions Databases

And, in light of Citizens United, the Federal Election Commission has a campaign finance disclosure portal.

For enhanced searching of government information, check out the Lobbying Disclosure database in Knowledge Mosaic.

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The American League of Lobbyists is a nonprofit organization committed to enforcing ethical practices among lobbyists. Get an overview of the lobbying process in Resources for the Public.

OpenSecrets.org reveals how much money individual corporations and labor unions have spent on lobbying every year since 1998.

The Center for Public Integrity provides investigative journalism that exposes the realities of politics and policy. Keep track of bills and their supporters, or politicians and their supporters.

The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group is part of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based organization that uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable.

The Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker, which is co-run by the Sunlight Foundation and ProPublica, allows researchers to browse lobbying organizations that work on behalf of a particular foreign government by country name.

Journals

National Journal is Washington’s premier source of nonpartisan insight on politics.

Roll Call covers House and Senate activity and the people involved in the Congressional arena.