Spending on Washington lobbying falls in 2011

Reporting from Washington — 

Washington’s political gridlock has had at least one advantage: It allowed businesses and interest groups to reduce their lobbying expenses last year, the first time that’s happened in more than a decade.

Overall, the amount spent on lobbying was nearly $3.3 billion last year, down from $3.5 billion the year before, according to a preliminary analysis of disclosure forms by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

It marked the first time since 1999 that spending on lobbying, year-over-year, dropped in Washington.

Lobbying hit a high-water mark in 2010 as Congress finished work on two massive bills overhauling healthcare and financial regulations.

With power split in Washington last year — Democrats control the White House and Senate, while Republicans have a majority in the House — major legislation became much harder to pass. That allowed businesses, trade groups and labor unions to spend less on arguing their causes in Congress, the center said.

“The political gridlock … has slowed the flow of money to K Street’s hired guns,” said Sheila Krumholz, the center’s executive director, referring to the center for lobbyists’ offices. “Nevertheless, special interest groups, from the tech industry to public-sector unions, continue to hire lobbyists to give them a megaphone in Washington, as well as first-class access and connections.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was the largest lobbying spender last year, at $66.4 million. But that was just about half the $132 million it spent in 2010 when it was helping lead the fight against the Obama administration’s healthcare and financial-reform bills.

Still, there was plenty of money thrown around Washington last year as battles emerged on other issues.

The debate over online piracy legislation was a key reasonGoogle Inc.more than doubled its spending last year to $11.4 million. Overall tech industry spending was up slightly to $125 million from $122 million the prior year, the center said.

Google and other Internet companies opposed two Internet piracy bills, which were derailed last week after a broad online protest. Hollywood was strongly pushing those bills, and lobbying spending by the movie, TV and music industry was up last year to $122 million from $111 million.

Spending also rose last year for commercial banks, telecommunications service providers, the mining industry, public-sector unions and advocates of abortion rights, the center said.

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