Defense Lobbying
Lobbying activity reported under the Lobbying Disclosure Act on this issue: registrants, expenditures, and specific bills lobbied, drawn from the Senate Office of Public Records quarterly LD-2 filings.
The verdict
PlainInfluence tracks $460.5M in itemized Defense lobbying disclosures across 2,818 filers, among them CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE U.S.A., BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE, AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC.
- $460.5M
- tracked Defense lobbying
- 2,818
- organizations lobbying
- $163K
- average per filer
Issue code: DEF · 2818 organizations lobbying on this issue
What the Defense Lobbying Data Shows
Under Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act code DEF, 2,818 organizations reported federal lobbying activity on Defense across the 2023-2024 reporting period, with combined expenditures of $460.5M. That volume of filings places Defense among the issues where corporate, trade-association, and advocacy lobbying is actively shaping the legislative and regulatory agenda, with each registrant required to disclose specific bills, agencies contacted, and in-house lobbyists engaged.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE U.S.A. leads all filers on this issue with $142.2M in tracked lobbying expenditures, and the top 10 reporting organizations - including CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE U.S.A., BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE, AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC - typically account for a disproportionate share of total outlays, a concentration pattern that repeats across most LDA issue codes. Each of these organizations files quarterly LD-2 disclosures naming the lobbyists deployed and the chambers of Congress or executive agencies contacted.
The 2,818 filers tracked here represent a structured picture of who is paying to be heard on Defense - useful context when evaluating hearings, committee markups, and rulemaking on related topics. Because LDA filings are a public-record trailing indicator, spending in the 2023-2024 window reflects priorities that will continue to ripple through the 118th and 119th Congresses before any policy outcomes register in the data.
Top Spenders
Who spends the most on Defense
Top organizations by reported lobbying spend on this issue code, from Senate LDA filings.
Source: U.S. Senate Office of Public Records, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings LD-2 quarterly lobbying disclosure filings (issue codes, registrants, expenditures) · 2024 Aggregated from quarterly LD-2 filings for issue code DEF; covers 2,818 registered organizations across the 2023-2024 reporting period.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is spent lobbying on Defense?
A total of $460.5M has been spent lobbying on Defense by 2818 organizations, according to Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) filings for 2023-2024. The top spender is CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE U.S.A., with $142.2M in total lobbying expenditures.
Who are the biggest spenders on Defense lobbying?
The top organizations lobbying on Defense include CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE U.S.A., BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE, AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC. These organizations file lobbying disclosures with the Senate Office of Public Records, which are publicly available under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
What is the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA)?
The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 requires lobbyists and lobbying firms to register and file quarterly reports with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House. These filings disclose the issues lobbied on, the amount spent, and the government entities contacted. PlainInfluence uses these filings to track lobbying activity by issue area.
How many organizations lobby on Defense?
2,818 organizations have filed lobbying disclosures listing Defense as a lobbying issue during the 2023-2024 reporting period. Each organization may file multiple times per year as lobbying activities continue across quarters.
Where does lobbying issue data come from?
All lobbying data is sourced from the Senate Office of Public Records, which collects filings under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. Organizations must disclose their lobbying expenditures, the specific issues they lobby on (using standardized issue codes), and the government bodies they contact. Data shown covers 2023-2024 filings.
Related guides
Data: Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) filings, 2023-2024. Verify filings at lda.senate.gov.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Every figure on PlainInfluence is rendered directly from official FEC, Senate LDA and USAspending records, no number is typed in by an editor. Lobbying-issue disclosure totals are aggregated directly from Senate LDA bulk data, no figure is hand-entered. Disclosed contributions, lobbying, and contracts are lawful, regulated activities, appearing on this page is not an allegation of wrongdoing. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, our disclaimer, or report a data error. Data current as of 2023-2024.