April 27, 2023

Federal lobbying spending tops $1 billion in first quarter of 2023

The federal budget and appropriations was the most lobbied issue as Congress grappled with the looming debt ceiling crisis, and players in the health sector, which spent more money on federal lobbying last quarter than any other sector, fought to keep cuts to Medicaid off the bargaining table.

As the technology industry races to create tools harnessing generative artificial intelligence, the technology that powers AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Big Tech companies also rushed to K Street to weigh in on potential regulation of the novel technologies. 

The Department of Defense’s five biggest contractors — Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman — all reported “strong” first quarter earnings. All but Boeing spent less on federal lobbying in the first quarter of 2023 than in recent years.

Dive deeper into the data behind the headlines

According to a recent a report from the Associated Press, the Federal Reserve blamed the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on poor management, watered-down regulations and lax oversight by its own staffers, and said the industry needs stricter policing on multiple fronts to prevent future bank failures.

An OpenSecrets analysis shows that Silicon Valley Bank spent over $2 million since 2009 to hire “revolving door” lobbyists who flexed their influence to weaken federal regulations. Now, the Federal Reserve says those weak regulations are responsible for the banks historic failure.

Media Partnerships Coordinator

OpenSecrets seeks a Partnerships Coordinator to take the lead in growing our outreach to journalists and advocates, helping them to explain money's influence on the issues of greatest importance to Americans, measuring our success and communicating the results.

See our media citations from outlets around the nation this week:

Carbon tech captures Washington (New York Times)

The oil and gas industry spent more than $124 million on federal lobbying in 2022, according to the watchdog group OpenSecrets, with a big area of focus being subsidies for carbon capture.

The low cost (for a rich person) of sponsoring a Supreme Court justice (The Washington Post)

Open Secrets reports that Crow has given more than $7.6 million to federal candidates for office, almost all of it to Republicans. He also donates to various other conservative causes and institutions.

Biden re-elect a new test for record-breaking small-dollar operation (NBC News)

Biden was hardly a small-dollar giant when he launched his 2020 run. With Biden returning to politics after leaving office in 2017, and running as the principal candidate for the first time since 2008, Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders outpaced the field among small donors during the Democratic primary, per an analysis from OpenSecrets.

CNBC

Pittsburg Post-Gazette

The Hill

WSJ

Ballotpedia News

Bloomberg

Financial Times

MSNBC

OpenSecrets
1100 13th Street, NW
Suite 800
Washington, DC xxxxxx
United States

If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please 

unsubscribe.