There is a lot of talk on which companies, unions or rich individuals give large amount of money to individual candidates; not as much is said in the press about the billions of dollars that are spent each year by the lobby industry on just the White House and Congress in order to influence legislation and policy.

Do any of the of the names of the organizations listed below sound familiar from the political news we get every day at home? The reason they do is because of the very large amount of money they spend influencing your representatives in Washington, DC.

According to the 7/10/2006 report from www.politicalmoneyline.com:

Federal lobbying of the legislative and executive branches totaled $1.2 billion ($1,201,255,222) during the last six months of 2005. This is the first period lobbying expenditures have averaged over $200 million a month. For all of 2005 the total spent was $2,363,102,190.

Top Industry Sectors:
Health Care $183,324,757
Communication/Technology $158,841,159
Finance/Insurance $155,734,737

Top Organizations Spending:
Chamber of Commerce of the US $10,540,000
General Electric $10,360,000
AT&T Inc & SBC $10,360,000
US Chamber of Commerce Inst. For Legal Reform $10,250,000
American Medical Assn $9,720,000
AARP $8,472,064
Northrop Grumman $7,507,000
PhRMA $7,220,000
American Hospital Assn $7,080,000
Southern Co $7,020,000

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