Interactive tools · FEC + LDA + USAspending

Tools

Client-side interactive tools for exploring U.S. federal political money. Filter, sort, and compare -- no page reloads. All data rendered live from the PlainInfluence database.

3
Interactive tools

What the tools do

Three client-side tools search the same FEC, Senate LDA, and USAspending corpus that powers every profile: 7,124 politicians and 22,531 organizations, including $10.1B in tracked lobbying spend.

3
interactive tools
7,124
politicians in the corpus
22,531
organizations tracked
$10.1B
lobbying spend searchable

Available tools

Each tool below is fully client-side: the data is embedded in the page at load time and all filtering, sorting, and comparison runs in your browser with no network requests. This keeps the tools fast on any connection and avoids server round-trips for each interaction.

Lobbying

Lobby Lookup

Search the top 200 federal lobbying registrants by organization name, industry sector, or LDA issue area. Combines Senate LDA quarterly filings with FEC PAC contribution records for a complete picture.

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Comparison

Influence Comparator

Pick any two organizations from the top 150 by combined influence and see their FEC contributions, LDA lobbying, and federal contract totals side by side. Visual bar comparison included.

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Explorer

Top Spender Explorer

Sortable, filterable table of the top 150 organizations by combined federal influence. Sort by contributions, lobbying, contracts, or total. Filter by name or set a minimum spend floor.

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What's in the archive

Every organization has a record, few carry all four data layers

All 22,531 organizations in this registry have a base entity record. Search coverage thins out from there, most carry a lobbying disclosure, far fewer also show PAC contributions, federal contracts, or independent expenditures.

  • Base entity record 100% 22,531

    Every organization in the registry has a name, type classification, and combined-influence total.

  • Senate LDA lobbying disclosure 73.7% 16,606

    Filed at least one quarterly lobbying disclosure with reported spend.

  • FEC PAC contributions 18.9% 4,251

    Sponsors a PAC with at least one disclosed contribution to a federal candidate.

  • USAspending federal contracts 10.1% 2,285

    Holds at least one disclosed federal contract award.

  • Independent expenditures 4.7% 1,069

    Filed independent-expenditure spending for or against a federal candidate.

Share of the 22,531-organization registry carrying each data layer. Source: FEC bulk data, Senate LDA filings, and USAspending.gov contract awards.

How the tools work

Each tool queries the PlainInfluence database at page load time and embeds the resulting dataset as a compact JSON block in the HTML. The client-side JavaScript then filters and renders from that embedded snapshot -- there is no API call on every interaction. This design means the tools are fast on any connection and work even if the network drops after the initial page load. The embedded datasets are refreshed whenever the portal database is reingested from the Federal Election Commission, U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database, and USAspending.gov. See the methodology page for the full ETL pipeline documentation.

Where to go next

Each tool below draws on the same underlying corpus -- pick the one that matches what you're trying to find.

  • Search the lobbying registrants behind $10.1B in tracked spend by organization, industry sector, or LDA issue area. Lobby Lookup
  • Put any two of the 22,531 tracked organizations side by side across contributions, lobbying, and federal contracts. Influence Comparator
  • Sort and filter the full top-150 influence board yourself, by contributions, lobbying, contracts, or total, instead of reading a fixed ranking. Top Spender Explorer

All three tools run entirely client-side on data embedded at page load; there is no live query per interaction. Datasets refresh whenever the portal reingests FEC, Senate LDA, and USAspending data.

Every figure on PlainInfluence is rendered directly from official FEC, Senate LDA and USAspending records, no number is typed in by an editor. 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.

Download the federal political-money statistics cited on this page: federal-political-money-statistics.csv (CC0).