Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

Surge of immigration lobbyists fueled by push for high-skilled foreign workers

As the immigration reform bill has been negotiated in the Senate, the number of new lobbying registrations filed this year disclosing an interest in the issue has surpassed the number from all of 2012. Some organizations are hiring lobbyists for the first time while others have bolstered their Washington presence to influence the bill.

Apple lobbies on taxes more than any other subject

In years before Waco explosion, fertilizer trade groups lobbied for lax oversight

Photo source: istockphoto

Pro-CISPA forces spend 140 times more lobbying than opponents

Interests backing a controversial cyber security bill up for a vote in the House today have a big edge in campaign donations and lobbying reserves. But opponents have President Barack Obama's veto pen.

Political heavy hitters lining up behind gay marriage

Updated: 1:20 p.m.

Immigration: Give me your poor, your tired . . . your lobbyists?

Long before the last election put new political momentum behind the stalled efforts to enact a comprehensive update of the nation's immigration laws, Washington's influence industry was teed up to make it a titanic battle, an analysis of lobbying disclosures by the Sunlight Foundation shows.

Since Newtown, full employment for gun lobbyists

Since the Dec. 14 shooting that left 26 people dead at a Connecticut elementary school, at least 22 lobbyists have registered to influence Congress on gun-related issues, and several have been holding fundraisers for Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who is a potential swing vote in the legislative battle on Capitol Hill.

What Jon Kyl won't be lobbying on

Jon Kyl, the number two Senate Republican leader before retiring in January, has quickly become an advisor to influence powerhouse Covington & Burlington, a firm that has spent nearly $100 million lobbying in the nation's capital, Sunlight's Influence Explorer shows. Kyl will be joining a bipartisan stable of heavy hitters that includes Stuart Eizenstat, a top official in the Carter and Clinton administrations, and Senate parliamentary wizard Marty Gold.

No sequester for political ads

In honor of the snowquester, as the Washington Post's cheeky Weather Gang has dubbed the spring storm that so far has proven more effective than the Tea Party in reining in government, Sunlight has decided to take a look at the efforts getting underway by various groups to keep the actual sequester at bay.

ExxonMobil lobbies consumer agency on phthalates

Under heavy lobbying by ExxonMobil and other industry heavyweights, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is nearly a year late with a mandated report on the possible dangers found in chemicals used to create plastic products from raincoats to "rubber" duck bath toys to shampoo. A Sunlight review of the public record shows how outgunned consumer advocates are by industry.

Pro-gun interests hire new lobbyists

Three pro-gun interests have hired lobbyists, according to registration statements filed with the Senate Monday and last week, in the face of a push by Congress to introduce new gun control measures in the wake of the December massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

Obama visits GOP givers to make a point about sequestration

When President Barack Obama travels Tuesday to the historic Newport News Shipbuilding facility to make a point about the potential damage from the looming sequestration axe, he'll be making a political point in more ways than one.

Al Jazeera lands heavyweight Republican lobbyist

Tom Korologos, a Republican so admired by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle that he's been called "the 101st senator," is going to lobby for Al Jazeera.

Could sequester hit Israel?

When John Kerry takes the stage at the University of Virginia today to deliver his first major address as secretary of state, he'll be making a plea  for one of the spending areas likely to draw the least amount of sympathy when the sequester axe hits. In a letter to the Senate, Kerry warned that foreign aid may have to absorb a $2.6 billion hit if a deal to avert the automatic budget cuts isn't reached.