Caitlin Reilly | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call
WASHINGTON — Trade groups and companies responsible for this year’s largest lobbying expenditures so far upped the ante in the first half of 2024 compared to a year earlier, defying expectations for an election year slump.
K Street’s top 10 clients shelled out $162.3 million through June, up 13% from the first half of 2023. Part of that was due to heavy legislative activity during the first quarter, which saw enactment of two big spending packages and House passage of a $79 billion tax bill that got hung up in the Senate.
Topping the list are old standbys that regularly populate the top 10: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; National Association of Realtors; Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA; American Medical Association; American Hospital Association; and Business Roundtable. All boosted their lobbying expenditures in the first half of this year above the same period in 2023.
Changes to this year’s top 10 include the American Chemistry Council and AARP, the chief seniors’ lobby group, elbowing their way in. Meta Platforms Inc., parent of Facebook and Instagram, pushed into the top five, wedged between health care titans PhRMA and the American Medical Association, the main physicians’ lobby.
Lobbying expenditures dipped in the second quarter, from $89.1 million to $73.9 million. But top K Street officials said uncertainty around the elections continues to drive client demand — and revenue — as companies prepare for all possible November outcomes.
“Election years bring some trepidation for the lobbying business because of the uncertainty about the legislative outlook and political outlook, but interest is heightened beyond belief right now,” said William Moschella, co-chair of the government relations department at Brownstein.
Moschella’s firm — also known as Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP — reported $17.6 million in lobbying revenue in the second quarter, up 8% compared to the first quarter and 12% above the same period last year.
Brownstein’s top clients include private equity giant Apollo Global Management and two Apollo units, internet service provider Brightspeed and insurer Athene Holding Ltd., contributing a combined $2.6 million to the firm’s bottom line last quarter, according to disclosure forms. Tax policy was a main topic of concern, including on corporate and international taxes and the taxation of private equity investments, as well as broadband deployment issues.
Lobbyists said they expect revenue to remain elevated through the end of the year, despite lower odds of major legislation getting enacted.
“I honestly think it’s going to be more the same,” Moschella said. “Even though the number of legislative weeks are kind of dwindling, I think that there is so much attention on 2025 that that interest is going to remain high.”
Loren Monroe, a principal at BGR Group, said the unusual degree of uncertainty around the elections, as well as preparing for the expiration of many provisions of the 2017 tax law at the end of next year kept spending high.
“Anytime there’s potential change and uncertainty of who’s going to be in charge, it leads to an uptick in business. Our experience is clients want to have all scenarios covered,” Monroe said. “There’s so many different variables of what it’s going to look like after the November elections that a lot of our clients are looking to us to give them guidance and insights into how the changes could impact their priorities. Where are they at risk? Where are there opportunities?”
Monroe’s firm reported $11.1 million in revenue last quarter, up 3% from the first quarter and 8% from the second quarter last year. Among BGR’s biggest revenue-generating clients: semiconductor and wireless products manufacturer Qualcomm Inc.; the American Health Care Association, the largest trade group for nursing homes and assisted living facilities; and the government of India.
By the numbers
Interest groups tend to fall out of and into the top 10 from quarter to quarter. But tallying up the top 10’s activity is still useful in measuring broad industry trends, since it demonstrates the relative firepower aimed at influencing policy.
The uptick so far this year came despite the usual slowdown in lobbying expenditures during election years as legislative output slows to accommodate campaigning, and amid an economic recovery that analysts say is losing steam.
Of this year’s top 10 lobbying spenders, only Amazon’s — down about 3% — dropped from this point last year.
Meta Platforms increased spending by 43% compared to the same period last year. Legislation to require social media platforms to provide greater protections for children using their sites picked up momentum this year after whistleblowers from Instagram and Facebook testified that Meta ignored warning signs about risks to children online.
The Senate last month passed a bill that would require companies to design online platforms in a way that mitigates harm to users and bar them from sharing children’s personal information without parental consent. Meta has not taken a stance on the package.
PhRMA boosted spending by about 16% this year over last. The Chamber of Commerce increased its spending by about 6%, while the Business Roundtable spent about 10% more compared to this time last year.
Chemical industry, AARP ramp up
The American Chemistry Council and AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons, significantly increased lobbying spending, by about 54% and 27%, respectively.
American Chemistry Council spokesman Scott Openshaw said his group’s heavier activity was driven in part by a “comprehensive seven-figure campaign” calling on the Biden administration to “stop regulatory overreach” and promote manufacturing competitiveness.
The group also lobbied on EPA’s “flawed approach” to implementing 2016 updates to the chemical regulation law known as the Toxic Substances Control Act, Openshaw said, and pushed for the House-passed tax package and its restoration of lapsed business breaks as well as repeal of new Superfund taxes on chemicals.
In a statement, AARP said it ratcheted up spending in association with the group’s first in-person Washington “fly-in” in five years to support family caregiver legislation. AARP also lobbied to uphold Biden administration rulemakings on minimum nursing home staffing standards and on financial advisers’ fiduciary duties to investor clients.
AARP and the chemical industry group replaced CVS Health Corp. and the Open Society Action Fund, the lobbying arm of the left-leaning philanthropic group founded by billionaire financier George Soros, on the top 10 list for the first half of the year.
The Soros-backed group, also known as the Open Society Policy Center, has dramatically reduced its lobbying since the final years of the Trump administration, though it reported a big uptick in early 2023 amid an effort to repeal authorizations for the use of military force against Iraq that passed the Senate but died in the House.
CVS Health’s expenditures dropped substantially in the first half of this year after a flurry of early 2023 activity around legislation aimed at cracking down on pharmacy benefit managers’ practices.
Spending mostly tapered off in the second quarter, with six of the top 10 groups cutting their lobbying expenditures below the previous quarter.
Spending by the Chamber of Commerce dropped about 40% from the first quarter. Neil Bradley, the chamber’s executive vice president and chief policy officer, said that was more a function of when bills came due rather than any particular policy shift. Spending by the American Medical Association, PhRMA and Meta also dropped by more than one-fifth from the first quarter.
Tax cliff
Preparing for the expiration of many of the individual and business provisions from the 2017 tax law at the end of next year persisted in the second quarter as a source of lobbying activity and interest, K Street officials said.
Akin — also known as Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP — credited preparation for next year’s tax negotiations, and the addition of former House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, to their staff, for a record second-quarter performance for the firm: $13.8 million in lobbying revenue. Akin’s second quarter revenue was up 6% from the same period last year; it fell less than 1% from the first quarter.
BGR Group’s Monroe said the firm is encouraging early engagement with members on next year’s tax cliff, especially in light of member and staff turnover since passage of the 2017 law.
“Businesses are very much trying to find the right words and the right emphasis to put forward as they engage, because it’s a whole new ballgame,” Monroe said. “There’s enormous turnover in Congress, among the staff, among the committees of jurisdiction members. There’s not as nearly as much historical perspective. And so in many ways you’re having to approach offices with a blank slate and to make your case again, regardless of what happened.”
Brownstein’s Moschella added that the firm is telling clients to consider all provisions “on the table” next year given high debt and deficits, despite Republican promises to fully extend the law.
“Being involved now, educating members of Congress now is of paramount importance,” he said.
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