William_T._Bianco,_David_T._Canon]_American_Polit

346 Chapter 10Chapter 10 || Interest GroupsInterest Groups

lobbying ($11.8 million over two years). And only one of the influential interest groups in

Figure 10.2 (the AARP) spends more than $10 million per year on lobbying. Clearly, the

big spenders on lobbying are exceptions to the rule, and most interest groups and firms

spend relatively little on lobbying.^10 For example, the group that sends a turkey to the

White House for a ceremonial pardon every year at Thanksgiving, the National Turkey

Federation, spends $140,000 a year to lobby the federal government on a relatively small

range of issues. Many other groups spend even less, barely scraping together enough cash

to send someone to plead their case in Washington. In fact, a few groups account for a

substantial fraction of total lobbying expenditures.

That concentration of spending is evident in another way as well: a large

proportion of lobbying is done by the business sector and relatively little by political

or public interests. All of the top six sectors were business interests (health, finance,

miscellaneous business, communication, energy, and transportation), with 76 percent

of the total spending on lobbying, while education, nonprofits, and public officials

(listed under “Other”) and ideological/single-issue political groups came in seventh

and eighth, spending 6.6 and 4.4 percent respectively.^11

Although the amount of money spent on lobbying by interest groups may seem like

a lot (and often leads to calls for restrictions on lobbying, as discussed in the Take a

Stand feature on page 349), it is small compared with how much is at stake.^12 The federal

government now spends more than $4 trillion every year. In recent years, spending

by interest groups and by the lobbying arms of organizations and corporations has

FIGURE

10.2

Source: Data available at Center for Responsive Politics, “Lobbying Database,” http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/index.php (accessed 8/21/18).

Variation in Lobbying Expenditures, 2016–2017

Lobbying expenditures vary widely. Some influential groups (such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) spend hundreds of millions

of dollars a year, but many other influential groups (such as NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Family Research Council) spend

relatively little. How can groups have influence over government policy despite spending almost nothing on lobbying?

Large Firms

Top Spenders

Influential Groups

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

National Association of Realtors

Blue Cross/Blue Shield

Pharmaceutical Research &

Manufacturers of America

Google/Alphabet

Exxon Mobil

Apple

AARP

NRA

NARAL Pro-Choice America

Family Research Council

$186,200,000

$129,300,000

$49,500,000

$45,500,000

$33,580,000

$23,230,000

$11,820,000

$18,200,000

$8,300,000

$320,000

$75,000

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