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 percent 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 o.