Research Guide

Visit the US House of Representatives Office of the Clerk's lobbying disclosure page to find the rules surrounding disclosure, the public disclosure search, and registrant search. 

Use the US House of Representative's Lobbying Disclosure Search to find informaiton on lobbying disclosures and contributions dating back to 2000. You can also search according to issue area or client's location (state or country). 

Legistorm lobbying software provides a comprehensive suite of tools for tracking federal and state legislative activities, including lobbying intelligence. It offers features such as state legislative tracking, lobbying software, grassroots advocacy tools and reporting capabilities.

Some cities have lobbying disclosure databases - Los Angeles is one of those cities. Follow this link to search for lobbying disclosure in Los Angeles. 

Use NASL to search for lobbyists and lobbying firms around the country. Various lobbying firms around the country are members of NASL, and they represent a range of clients, from small local organizations to large Fortune 500 companies.

NCSL's Legislator Gift Restrictions provides information on the laws and regulations surrounding gifts to elected officials in all 50 states. Reference this to understand what the restrictions, prohibitions, definitions, and exceptions are for gifts to legislators at the state level. 

Use Nevada Legislature's Lobbyist Site to search for lobbyist reports at the state level. 

Use Oklahoma Ethics Commission's Lobbyists Public Disclosure System to search for reports and data filed by both registered and non-registered lobbyists in Oklahoma. 

OpenSecrets is a government transparency group working to track money in politics and how it impacts elections and policy. You can also see connections between candidates on this database. The second link above will take you to a page on OpenSecrets’ site that describes the primary types of information that candidates and members must include on personal financial disclosures.

It also provides detailed insights into lobbying expenditures, including ranked lists of top spenders, industries, and individual lobbyists. The website also has a breakdown of spending trends over time, allowing for year-to-year and quarter-to-quarter comparisons. Lastly, you can also find recent registrations to monitor new lobbying activities. 

The Foreign Lobby Watch on OpenSecrets uses the reports foreign agents are required to file according to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to calculate the spending of different countries around the world. By looking at this data, you can learn more about different registrants acting on behalf of foreign interests. 

Use the OpenSecrets State Lobbying Disclosure Scorecard to see the lobbying disclosure quality in a particular state. Based on a 20-point scale OpenSecrets ranks states according to compensation, lobbyist and client identification, timely disclosure, and a user-friendly transparency site. 

For information on foreign lobbying in the U.S., use this resource from the Quincy Institute to learn about the buyers, issues, facilitators, and targets of lobbying within the United States. This is key to understand. Foreign countries spend money to lobby members in Washington for various purposes, such as receiving weapons from the U.S., gaining American favor in regional conflicts, or more generally reputation laundering.