U.S. leading lobbying industries in the U.S. 2023

In 2023, the pharmaceuticals and health products industry in the United States spent the most on lobbying efforts, totaling to about 379 million U.S. dollars. In the same year, the insurance industry spent about 157 million U.S. dollars on lobbying.

What is lobbying?

Put quite simply, lobbying is when a company or organization tries to influence government leaders to create legislation that will benefit the lobbyist in some way. Lobbying can also be done in business in an attempt to create beneficial circumstances for the lobbyist. Oftentimes, lawyers and former government officials are hired as lobbyists as they know how government works and already have connections within the government. Lobbying has become controversial in the United States, because large corporations tend to lobby in favor of their business rather than the needs of the public.

The NRA and lobbying

One of the most famous lobbying organizations in the United States is the National Rifle Association (NRA), which lobbies lawmakers in favor of gun rights. However, despite this, it only spent around 1.23 million U.S. dollars on lobbying expenditures in 2020.