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First Half 2006 Lobbying Outlays Set Record – More Disclosure in the Works |
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New York Times, 16 February 2007 By Political MoneyLine Staff As Congress is considering new disclosure requirements for lobbyists, lobby firms, and those companies and organizations that pay for lobbying, the lobbying industry is at an all time high. The final total for lobbying during the first months of 2006 shows $1,263,099,500 spent on lobbying the Executive Branch and the Congress. This is a new record level of spending. The average was $211 million in spending per month.
Spending in the first six months of 2006 increased $62 million (5%) over the previous record level set in the last six months of 2005 ($1.201 billion). Compared to the first six months of 2005, there was an increase of $101 million (8.7%). This is PoliticalMoneyLine's sixteenth lobbying summary report. As in earlier reports, PoliticalMoneyLine shows figures reported by organizations and by their lobbying firms. For overall totals and rankings PoliticalMoneyLine utilizes a consolidated figure with any duplication removed. Although we have earlier highlighted some top spenders, this summary includes amended and late filings, as well as final rankings and sector totals. A multi-year summary provides comparative charts and tables for each six-month period going back to July 1998. Lobby reports for the last six months of 2006 are due in mid-February 2007 and will be made public as they are received over the next few weeks. For the first time, these Year-End lobby disclosure reports are being filed electronically. Ironically, it was former Rep. Bob Ney, who as chairman of the House Administration Committee in June of 2005 mandated new electronic filing of disclosure reports. Ney was convicted as part of the Abramoff lobbying scandal. Ney is scheduled to report to prison on March 1. |
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