Who is Lobbying on What?

I've found a new toy lately. Lobbying records are public information! You can look them up at the Senate Office of Public Records. The records to look at are the quarterly reports - the registrations, terminations, and year-end reports do not contain nearly as much information. You will see who the lobby firm is, who the client is, how much money they spent (if it's over $5000), who the individual lobbyists were, and what they lobbied on.

What is this good for? Mostly, I like to use it to see where people's biases may lie. If you read an anti-sustainable food op ed or a statement by somebody and you want to know if they might be getting paid to lobby on the issue, you can check out the lobbying records and see if that's the case. This week I did that for several people and I hit one jackpot - Marshall Matz. He authored a heinous op ed earlier this year. And... it turns out he's lobbying for practically every Big Ag group under the sun. Other times, when you check to see if somebody has been lobbying and you come up empty, it's reassuring. They still might be biased in some way (check their campaign contributions if they hold or held elected office, or see if they sit on a corporate board), but if they aren't getting paid to lobby on behalf of anyone, well, that's something at least.