Monday, July 6, 2009

Which Industry Spent the Most on Lobbyists, Thus Far, in 2009? And 2008? And 2007? And 2006?


Or, "I think you can see where this is going. . . ."

According to the influence in government watchdog-site OpenSecrets.org, it is, and has been, consistently, every year since 1998, the pharmaceutical industry -- spending over $1.62 Billion (or $1,620,092,198, more precisely), for over the past ten years. Note that pharma outspends hospitals about two to one, in any given year -- but this year, 2009, pharma is on a pace to outspend hospitals three to one.

In any event, here is the Lobying Disclosure Act Report data for the First Quarter of 2009, and full-year 2008:

IndustryQ1 2009 $2008 $ Spent
......
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products$66,572,765$234,067,158
Oil & Gas$44,512,605$128,959,521
Insurance$41,370,798$154,006,322
Electric Utilities$35,120,775$159,130,986
Computers/Internet$29,416,021$120,411,535
TV/Movies/Music$25,125,769$101,575,424
Education$24,219,889$104,266,057
Hospitals/Nursing Homes$23,743,967$101,059,188
Misc Man. & Dist.$23,583,965$98,881,169
Air Transport$22,805,170$104,967,502
Business Associations$22,655,543$129,963,262

More specifically, here is a PDF file of Schering-Plough's 2009 Q1 lobying disclosure form. Of interest is the disclosure (on page 6 of 9) that it lobbied the government about a ". . . .response to congressional investigation regarding ENHANCE study. . . ." during Q1 2009 (it also did so, during Q3 2008 and Q4 2008 -- on page 9 of those forms).

Geez -- I wonder what those efforts looked like. [And yes, full disclosure -- this Washington Post item put me on a track to post this one.]

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