Health-Care, Finance Industries Ramped Up Lobbying in First Quarter 2010

The health industry spent $137.9 million on lobbying -- about $1.5 million per day -- during the first three months of 2010, when Congress passed health-care legislation, according to a new report by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The finance, insurance and real estate industries spent $123.1 million as Congress also debated new financial regulations.

From all sources, lobbying expenses totaled $903 million between January and March, up 11 percent over the $811 million spent during first three months of 2009, according to the Washington-based research group.

Spending on health industry lobbying rose more than 7 percent from $128.4 million spent during the same period in 2009, the group said. Drugmakers Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. joined trade groups for pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and hospitals among the industry’s five biggest spenders.

Pfizer, based in New York, spent $4.3 million during the period and Merck, of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, spent $3.2 million, the center said.

Lobbying expenditures for finance, insurance and real estate interests rose almost 10 percent from $112.2 million in the first three months of 2009. The National Association of Realtors, the Chicago-based organization for real estate agents, was the top spender in that group, with $4.3 million.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobby, spent more than any other group from January to March -- $30.9 million, including federal, state and grassroots lobbying by the main group and an affiliate, the center said. That’s almost double the Chamber’s $15.5 million of expenditures during the same part of 2009.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.

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