Lobbying Expenditure
The amount of money an organization spends on lobbying activities during a reporting period, as disclosed in quarterly LDA filings.
Understanding Lobbying Expenditure
Lobbying expenditures represent the financial resources organizations devote to influencing government policy. Under the LDA, expenditures are reported differently depending on the filer type. Organizations that lobby on their own behalf (in-house) report "expenses" -- the total costs associated with their lobbying activities, including staff compensation, overhead, and related costs. External lobbying firms report "income" -- the fees received from clients for lobbying services.
Quarterly reports round to the nearest $10,000 (or $20,000 for in-house filers). If expenditures fall below these thresholds, they are reported as less than $5,000 or $10,000 respectively. The data in LobbySpend aggregates these reported amounts across all filings for each organization, summing quarterly disclosures across years to produce total spending figures. Federal lobbying spending in the United States has consistently exceeded $3 billion annually since 2008, with the pharmaceutical, electronics, and insurance industries among the top sectors by total spend.
Expenditure data is one of the most important indicators of organizational lobbying activity and constitutes 40% of the LobbySpend Influence Score.
Related Glossary Terms
Lobbying
The act of attempting to influence government decisions, policies, or legislation by contacting elected officials, their staff, or executive branch officials.
Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA)
The 1995 federal law (amended in 2007) that requires lobbyists and lobbying organizations to register with Congress and file quarterly spending and activity reports.
Influence Score
LobbySpend's proprietary 0-100 metric that measures an organization's overall lobbying reach, graded A through F.
In-House Lobbyist
A lobbyist employed directly by an organization (corporation, trade association, or nonprofit) rather than by an external lobbying firm.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does lobbying expenditure mean?
The amount of money an organization spends on lobbying activities during a reporting period, as disclosed in quarterly LDA filings.
Why is lobbying expenditure important in lobbying?
Lobbying expenditures represent the financial resources organizations devote to influencing government policy. Under the LDA, expenditures are reported differently depending on the filer type. Organizations that lobby on their own behalf (in-house) report "expenses" -- the total costs associated wit...
this entity is one of the U.S. federal lobbying disclosure concepts that recurs across this site. The definition above is the technical answer; the paragraphs below add the practical context for how the concept connects to the the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Office LD-2 filings data behind every per-entity page on the site.
In the the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Office LD-2 filings data, this concept shapes one or more of the fields that drive the per-entity grades and rankings on this site. The methodology page describes which fields feed into which output; this glossary entry documents the underlying term.
Source: U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database, 2026.