Methodology
For more than a year, researchers at the Center for Public Integrity developed plans to create a comprehensive federal lobbying project that coupled online resources with stories that examine under-investigated issues like compliance, the "revolving door" between government and the private sector and the vast influence lobbyists wield over the U.S. government. If you have any questions about the LobbyWatch project or process not addressed in this methodology, please contact Database Editor Daniel Lathrop.
How to Interpret the Figures on this Site
The Center has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the numbers in this study. Despite this, there are certain to be occasional errors and inaccuracies in the figures we report on the LobbyWatch site. Among the reasons for this are: errors in the data as it was keypunched by the US Senate Office of Public Records, mistakes in the reports themselves and incongruity in the way organizations report their lobbying costs.
Of the data issues the Center has discovered, inconsistency in reporting semi-annual lobbying expenditures is the most common and consistent problem. Specifically, some organizations appear to pool the costs for in-house lobbying activities along with money they spend on outside firms as they are directed to do by the Senate's reporting guidelines. But in hundreds of other cases, organizations appear to be ignoring the guidelines by reporting just their internal lobbying costs.
Since there is no way to tell based on their filings whether organizations are reporting properly or not, the Center has developed a method to account for these apparent differences that results in a "best estimate" of the total each organization is spending on federal lobbying. Because of the conservative nature of the Center's approach, in many cases the figures significantly understate the actual amount of money certain organizations are spending. Because of this, the surest way to know what a company's full expenditures are on lobbying is to contact them directly.
Caution: This methodology has been revised since the initial release of this project in April 2005, so both the estimated aggregate total of lobbying as well as the totals for a number of individual organizations will have changed.
How the Center Arrived at These Totals
This method of calculating totals for each organization assumes that those groups that appear to be following the filing guidelines are doing so. Here's how it works:
The Center first tallies the totals each organization reports on forms it files with the Senate Office of Public Records for each six-month reporting period. That figure is compared to the aggregate total reported in the same period by outside lobby firms the organization hired.
If the organization's reported amount mathematically could include both its in-house and external lobbying costs, the Center assumes the report includes both and uses only that amount in its calculations. The money outside lobbyists report receiving from the company is ignored.
For those organizations that appear not to be following the guidelines—that is, an organization's self-reported total is lower than the total amount its lobbying firms report receiving that period—the Center counts only the outside money. The money the organization itself reported spending is ignored.
This ensures that there is no double-counting in the totals the Center reports. We'll continue to update these numbers and tweak the methodology over time.
How the Data was Collected
Researchers at the Center systematically downloaded every available lobbying disclosure record from the Senate Office of Public Records, which, as of the beginning of this project included complete records covering the period between Jan.1, 1998 and June 30, 2004. Filings covering the second half of 2004 were due in February, but officials said they may not be completely available online until 90 days after the filing deadline. The totals for the second half of 2004 were added in late June 2005, after Senate officials told the Center data entry was complete for the forms received in February. From that point on, the Center has and will continue to update filings on a rolling basis and will when appropriate issue reports detailing overall activity. In general, it takes about three months for all filings given to the Senate in a timely manner to be posted.
In all, the Center downloaded 2.2 million records from the Senate's Web site which details information from just under 200,000 lobbying forms (and amendments) filed over the study period. These electronic records detailed amounts of money paid to lobbyists, the issues on which they lobbied, the agencies they lobbied and who hired them to do so. In addition, the primary place of business in the U.S. and the interests of foreign governments and foreign companies in those clients were disclosed in most cases.
Over a three-month period, Center researchers checked, cleaned and coded the data to make it searchable over time and consistent year to year. This, and the data analysis which followed, was supplemented with interviews with lobbyists, public interest groups and government regulators.
To conduct an industry-based analysis of lobbying trends, Center researchers assigned a trade-identifying code to each company or organization on whose behalf lobbying was conducted. The Center used a coding system originally developed by the Center for Responsive Politics, which has become something of an industry standard. This identification allowed the Center to analyze industry-wide spending trends and pinpoint the key lobbying spenders on specific issues. When company's had multiple business interests, these industry codes were based on a company's primary business.
To assess how much public money is spent within the federal lobbying system, the Center identified states, local governments, universities and other organizations operating as public entities that were registered as lobbying clients or as their own lobbyist between 1998 and mid-2004. Center researchers then analyzed the lobbying disclosure forms of these states, schools and local governments to total the lobbying spending on a national, state-by-state, and individual basis over the past six years.
In order to determine the number of former government employees now registered as federal lobbyists, the Center examined thousands of professional biographies posted on the Web sites of the top 250 lobbying firms. Although not all of the lobbying firms provided biographies, the majority did post detailed professional histories of their employees. This research was supplemented by a review of the federal lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Senate Office of Public Records. This proved less useful than biographies, however, because not all former government positions are required to be disclosed on the forms.
Researchers looked for any positions in both the executive and legislative branches, discounting positions as interns, consultants or members of advisory boards. To determine the number of former members of Congress now working as lobbyists, researchers additionally matched the names of former members of Congress born after 1890 with the names on federal lobbying registrations. Researchers then checked these matches against the law firms Web sites and lobbyist disclosure records to confirm the lobbyists' identities as former members.
Because the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, which governs these reports, required companies to specify the amount they spent only when it exceeds $10,000 during a 6-month reporting period, many reports indicated only that "less than $10,000" had been spent. The Center has treated those amounts a being the equivalent of $0 for the purposes of calculating money spent on lobbying.
This work was supplemented by additional research into public records and organizations' Web sites and public relations materials, regarding other lobbyists researchers believed may have been former officials.
Additional Notes
* In a very small number of cases, outside lobbyists will themselves subcontract with other firms to lobby on behalf of a particular client. Since the guidelines are unclear as to how this money should be reported, the Center does not include the subcontracting firm's total in the outside lobbying total for that client.