$100 Million Per Month

by Monte Paulsen

At that rate, Washington's lobbyists would wine and dine away $2.4 billion in two years. That tops even the astronomical $2.2 billion worth of campaign donations (hard and soft money) spent by all presidential and congressional candidates combined during the entire 1995-1996 election cycle.

The first comprehensive look at the size of Washington's influence industry was released March 20 by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The report, entitled "Who's In the Lobby?" was compiled from the first round of semiannual disclosure reports filed by lobbyists under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. The law provides that these reports are available to the public, but only at two locations in the District of Columbia. So the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics has added this massive compilation of data to its Web site, where users can search for a selected lobbyist name or client name.

The center's report lists 106 organizations that each spent at least $1 million on lobbying during the first six months of 1997. The American Medical Association topped the chart, spending $8.56 million. As large as these figures are, they seriously understate the actual size of the Washington lobbying industry. Public relations, grass-roots lobbying and lobbying that takes place at a state or local level are generally not included.

Also not included are numerous famous lobbyists who presumably do not meet the legal definition of a lobbyist. For example, famous Clinton pal Vernon Jordan is not listed anywhere. Neither are former Senate majority leaders George Mitchell and Bob Dole, even though both draw fat paychecks from top lobbying firms.

1. American Medical Association: $8,560,000
2. U.S. Chamber of Commerce: $7,000,000
3. Philip Morris: $5,900,000
4. General Motors: $5,200,000
5. Edison Electric Institute: $5,000,000
6. Pfizer Inc.: $4,600,000
7. United Technologies Corp.: $4,160,000
8. AT&T: $4,120,000
9. General Electric: $4,120,000
10. Citicorp: $4,100,000
11. Christian Coalition: $4,040,000
12. National Committee to Preserve Social Security: $4,020,000
13. Bell Atlantic: $3,960,000
14. American Association of Retired Persons: $3,680,000
15. Northrop Grumman Corp.: $3,594,197
16. Ford Motor Co.: $3,478,000
17. American Hospital Association: $3,390,000
18. Texaco Inc.: $3,219,473
19. Ameritech Corp: $3,200,000
20. IBM Corp.: $3,180,000