Lobbying by the Numbers: People, Firms, Money, and Foreign Agents
Key takeaways
- Reported federal lobbying topped 5 billion dollars for the first time in 2025, about 5.3 billion by one count, up from a record 4.4 billion in 2024.
- More than 14,000 people were registered as federal lobbyists in 2025, the most since 2009, and nearly 2,040 registered for the first time.
- About 15,800 organizations reported lobbying in 2025, up from about 14,100 in 2024.
- Health care is the biggest-spending sector, and trade associations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Realtors have long topped the list of spenders.
- For the first time, outside lobbying firms were paid more than organizations spent on their own in-house lobbyists.
- The numbers miss shadow lobbying, grassroots campaigns, and state lobbying, so the true total is higher.
Lobbying is protected by the First Amendment right to petition the government, and federal law requires paid lobbyists to report what they are paid and whom they lobby. Those quarterly reports, filed with Congress, make the federal lobbying industry one of the most measured in the world.
This guide pulls together the key numbers: how much is spent, by whom, through which firms, on which issues, and what the official figures leave out.
Organizations lobby through in-house staff and by hiring outside firms on K Street and elsewhere. In 2025 outside firms reported about 2.76 billion dollars in revenue, more than the 2.46 billion organizations spent on in-house lobbying, for the first time on record. Firms with Republican ties grew fastest after the 2024 election, rising about 23 percent, compared with under 3 percent for Democratic-leaning firms. The top firm by revenue in 2025 reported about 19 million dollars.
Agents of foreign governments and parties register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and report hundreds of millions of dollars a year in influence work, while many foreign companies file under the domestic law instead. The official numbers leave out strategic advisers who do not register, public relations and advertising campaigns, grassroots mobilization, funding of think tanks, and lobbying of state governments, which have their own disclosure laws. Supporters of lobbying say the spending is small compared with the federal budget and represents real interests, while critics say it gives organized money outsized influence.
Reported spending on federal lobbying topped 5 billion dollars for the first time in 2025, about 5.3 billion according to Bloomberg Government, the largest one-year increase since quarterly reporting began in 2008. The previous record was 4.4 billion dollars in 2024, and spending has roughly tripled since the late 1990s in current dollars. Spending rises when Washington debates big bills, such as the 2017 tax law and the 2025 budget law, and when new policies like tariffs touch many industries.
The 2025 budget reconciliation law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was the most lobbied measure of the year, with more than 2,300 organizations reporting work on it. Reports mentioning trade rose 42 percent as tariffs expanded, taxes rose 20 percent, and manufacturing 18 percent. Artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency drew sharply more lobbying. Contacts with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative more than tripled and contacts with the White House rose more than 70 percent, reflecting the shift of decisions to the executive branch.
More than 14,000 people registered as federal lobbyists in 2025, the most since 2009, and nearly 2,040 registered for the first time, up about 43 percent from 2024. About 15,800 organizations reported lobbying in 2025, up from about 14,100 the year before. The number of registered lobbyists peaked before the 2007 disclosure reforms and then fell for years as some deregistered, even as spending rose, which suggests many people do influence work without registering.
Health care, including drug makers, hospitals, insurers, and doctors, is the biggest-spending sector, followed by finance, technology, energy, and business groups. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Realtors have topped annual lists of individual spenders for years, often spending tens of millions of dollars each. The drug industry group PhRMA ranked third in 2025 with about 37.9 million dollars. Seven large technology, AI, and social media companies spent about 50 million dollars combined in the first nine months of 2025, with Meta spending the most among them.
See how lobbying works and its history in lobbying explained, how officials move into lobbying in the revolving door, or political money in campaign finance explained.