Lobbying spending on civil rights is booming compared to 2023.
Spending on civil rights and civil liberties has increased by 335% in 2024 Q3 compared to 2023 Q3, according to lobbying data collected by LegiStorm. The spending disparity, which is nearly $3 million, makes this the fastest growing lobbying issue between the two quarters. The two lobbying firms with the most money attributed to the issue in 2024 Q3 are Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and Invariant LLC. Their revenues based on this issue, however, fall well behind the in-house lobbying numbers reported by National Association of Realtors and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The other issues in the top five of the fastest growing by money spent are environment, consumer affairs, housing and labor. Environment fell just behind civil rights in percent increase, seeing a 331% increase in the last year. All of the issues saw a 300% or more increase in spending between Q3 spending in 2024 and 2023. The most notable contributor to the spending growth was the National Association of Realtors, which spent 56% of its $31.7 million Q3 lobbying amongst the five issues.
Lobbying filings do not report revenues or spending based on issues. Instead, LegiStorm attributes dollar figures to issues based on an even allocation across all issues reported in a particular filing. For example, if a lobbying firm filing reports $100,000 in revenues from a particular client and the filing covers five separate issues, then LegiStorm counts $20,000 toward each issue.
