Updated May 2026 · Senate LDA filings
ResearchLobbying Guides
In-depth, data-driven guides on how lobbying works, where the money flows, and how to track corporate influence on federal policy. Every guide is anchored in the public Senate LDA disclosure record.
3 reference guides are currently available — a tight starter set focused on the questions that come up most often when readers first encounter LDA disclosures. The library is organized into 3 categories so readers can move between conceptual material (how the system works), structural material (how the LDA filing regime is built), and practical material (how to use the underlying data and the Influence Score).
Federal lobbying is one of the most heavily disclosed activities in American government. Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, anyone who is paid to contact covered federal officials on behalf of a client — and crosses statutory time and dollar thresholds — must register with the Senate Office of Public Records and file quarterly reports. Those reports list the registrant, the client, the dollar amount, the general issue areas worked on, the specific bills referenced, and the named lobbyists who carried out the contacts.
That makes the LDA database one of the most accessible windows into how Washington actually works — but reading it well takes some context. These guides exist to provide that context. They sit alongside the entity pages on this site (which summarize a single filer at a glance) and the campaign-finance reporting at OpenSecrets (which uses the same filings and frequently adds reporting on individual lobbyists and PAC activity).
All Guides
How Lobbying Works in Washington: A Complete Guide
From registration to quarterly filings, understand the mechanics of federal lobbying -- who lobbies, how they do it, and what gets disclosed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
Money in Politics: Where It Comes From and Where It Goes
Trace the flow of money from corporate treasuries and wealthy donors through PACs, Super PACs, dark money groups, and lobbying firms to the halls of Congress.
How to Track Corporate Influence on Policy
A practical guide to using public data sources -- LDA filings, FEC records, FARA registrations, and financial disclosures -- to follow the money and measure corporate lobbying power.
How to Use These Guides
If you are new to federal lobbying disclosures, start with the high-level explainer guides — they walk through registration thresholds, the quarterly filing cadence, what counts as a covered contact, and how the issue-code system works. From there, the structural guides cover the LDA versus FARA distinction, the mechanics of the revolving door indicator, and how Influence Scores compare across sectors.
If you already know how the disclosure regime works and want to use the data, the practical guides explain how to navigate LobbySpend, cross-reference a specific filer against the original Senate filing, and read the Influence Score in context with sector baselines. Each guide links back to the relevant entity, sector, or issue pages so you can move from concept to data without searching.
For the full technical methodology — normalization, deduplication of amendments, the specific weights used in the Influence Score, and the known limitations of LDA disclosures — see the methodology page. For LDA-specific terminology, the glossary covers covered positions, general issue codes, and registrant types.
Looking for definitions?
Our glossary covers 30+ lobbying, campaign finance, and government influence terms with detailed explanations.
Browse the glossary →Frequently Asked Questions
How does federal lobbying work in the United States?
Federal lobbying is governed by the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. Anyone who is paid to contact covered federal officials on behalf of a client — and crosses time and dollar thresholds — must register with the Senate Office of Public Records and file quarterly reports disclosing spending, the issues lobbied on, and the lobbyists who carried out the contacts. Filings are public domain and accessible at lda.senate.gov.
How can I track corporate lobbying?
Federal lobbying disclosures are publicly available through the Senate LDA database. LobbySpend aggregates that database for several hundred organizations, calculates an Influence Score based on disclosed spend, issue breadth, and revolving-door staffing, and links each summary back to the original filings. Independent campaign-finance research at OpenSecrets uses the same Senate LDA filings as one input.
What is the difference between LDA and FARA?
The Lobbying Disclosure Act covers domestic lobbying of federal officials. The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) covers advocacy work performed on behalf of foreign principals — foreign governments, parties, or commercial entities seeking to influence US policy or public opinion. Filings are submitted to the Department of Justice rather than the Senate, and FARA disclosures are not currently included in the LobbySpend index.
What does the Influence Score actually measure?
The LobbySpend Influence Score is a 0-100 composite that summarizes the breadth and depth of disclosed lobbying activity. Total reported spend is weighted at 40%, the count of distinct general issue areas at 30%, and the share of named lobbyists with prior federal government service at 30%. The score describes disclosed activity and does not measure effectiveness, ethics, or political alignment.
Where do these guides get their data?
Every guide is anchored in the same dataset that powers the rest of LobbySpend — quarterly filings published by the Senate Office of Public Records under the LDA. Where a guide explains a concept rather than a specific filer, citations point to the relevant statute, the Senate LDA documentation, or the LobbySpend methodology page.
LobbySpend Guides explain how the federal lobbying disclosure regime works and how to read Senate LDA filings. Each guide links to the underlying methodology and the original public filings.