How does US lobbying disclosure work?
Companies that lobby the US Congress or the federal government report it to the Senate and the House under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. You can see who lobbied for whom, on which issues and in which amount band, every quarter.
LD-1: registration
A lobbyist registers within 45 days after first making a lobbying contact or being hired to make one, whichever comes first (2 U.S.C. 1603). A lobbying firm registers once per client. A company or group with its own in-house lobbyists files one registration for all of them.
Small amounts are exempt. The law set the limits at $2,500 in income per client per quarter for a firm, and $10,000 in lobbying expenses per quarter for an organization, and raises both for inflation.
LD-2: the quarterly report
Each registrant files an LD-2 for each client no later than 20 days after the end of each quarter (2 U.S.C. 1604). It names the issues lobbied on, the houses of Congress and the federal agencies contacted, and the lobbyists who worked on them.
A lobbying firm reports what the client paid it. A company lobbying for itself reports what it spent. Both report an estimate rounded to the nearest $10,000, or state that the amount was less than $5,000. A report that says $120,000 can mean anything from $115,000 to $124,999.
LD-203: contributions, twice a year
Every registrant and every listed lobbyist files an LD-203 no later than 30 days after the end of each half year. It lists political contributions of $200 or more to federal candidates, officeholders, leadership PACs and party committees, gifts to presidential library foundations and inaugural committees, and payments for events that honor an official. The filer also certifies that they know the gift and travel rules of Congress.
Where to find the filings
The filings are public at the Senate's LDA site and at the House Lobbying Disclosure site, which hold the same reports.
Lobbying on this site
Corporate Lobbying shows LD-2 filings, with the amount band, the issues and a link to each filing. Each US company in the company index has a page with its lobbying by quarter, next to its Form 4 filings. Fund holdings are a separate filing, covered in how to read a 13F filing.
Checked against the regulation and the regulator’s own pages on Oct 31, 2026. This guide explains the rules; it is not legal or investment advice.
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