Expenditures on lobbying continued to decline during the first quarter of this year, Roll Call reports, but spending on in-house lobbyists has gone up.
The amount spent by corporations, unions and other organizations on contract lobbyists has fallen for four of the last five quarters, according to a CQ MoneyLine study that Roll Call cites. For the first time in just under a decade, lobbying revenues did not increase in 2010, sinking to $3.5 billion for the year, a drop of 2.9 percent from 2009. [Roll Call 2/1/11]
Contract lobbying firms took a serious hit in the first quarter of 2011, billing less than $356 million. That's the lowest level of billings since the beginning of George W. Bush's second term in office. In the first quarter of this year, clients have spent $150 million less on contract lobbying than in the last quarter of 2009.
Advocacy during this period has been handled increasingly in-house. As overall lobbying expenditures fell during the first quarter, spending on in-house lobbying increased more than $32 million. "One thing pushing this trend," Roll Call concluded, "is a recent move by several companies to open their own Washington offices or expand their in-house lobbying teams."
Most observers seem to agree that other factors are involved in the reduced spending on lobbyists-for-hire and the move toward in-house advocacy. The recession is one reason, but another - perhaps more significant - is that the previous Congress already tackled the big issues of banking reform and health care. Finally, companies are coming to view lobbying "as a more permanent, long-term part of their mission," according to Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen.
"If I need fewer lobbyists [as a company], I am not going to necessarily fire my employees," Jan Baran, a Wiley Rein senior partner, told Roll Call. "I am going to terminate the contracts with my outside lobbyists."
C. Randall Nuckolls of McKenna Long & Aldridge said the lobbying firm frequently advises clients that "the most efficient use of their dollars in the long run is to have an office here [in Washington, D.C.] if they have a major governmental-affairs presence or believe they need to."
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Link: http://www.rollcall.com/issues/56_120/Contract-Lobbyists-Losing-Market-Share-205489-1.html
