Analysis: Corporate Lobbying

In Tuesday's newsletter, we introduced our corporate lobbying dataset, and showed how lobbying spending becomes particularly important for companies during election years (as shown in the graph below).

With spending nearing record levels (and political outcomes looming large over the market), there is no better time to take a deeper look at lobbying data, and see how different companies are trying to voice their agenda in Washington.

Where is lobbying money coming from and going?

Here's a closer look at the publicly traded companies who have spent the most on lobbying in 2020, and which issues they care about the most.

NIC, Inc. (EGOV)

NIC is the country’s “largest provider of digital government services, sites, and secure payment processing.” So far in 2020, they have been the biggest lobbying spender overall with allocations spread over a wide array of specific issues, largely within telecommunications, taxation, and communications.

• April 20: $2.4M allocated to issues around tax fairness and tax simplification legislation.
• October 20: $2.24M allocated to suicide prevention legislation.
• October 20: $1.9M allocated to expanded access to broadband and 5G technology.

Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT)

Lockheed Martin, and American aerospace and defense firm, has been the second biggest spender so far this year. Perhaps of most interest is LMT’s biggest spend of $3.98M on April 20 which was allocated to spectrum pipeline development, innovation, and efficiency. In July, LMT’s CEO expressed an interest in partnering with the U.S. to build out a 5G network to connect weapons and maintain military advantage. Other big lobbying spends of the year included:

• January 21: $3.14M allocated to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020, with issues related to technology, aircraft, and space programs.
• July 20: $3.06M NASA Authorization Act of 2020, with issues related to launches and space programs.

AT&T (T)

The world’s largest telecommunications company was also a top spender in 2020. As one of the biggest corporate winners from the 2017 Tax Act, it doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise that they allocated $3.46M on July 20 to issues impacting corporate taxation and employer-provided benefits, as well as issues related to international data taxation. Similarly, the company is heavily involved with 5G development and broadband expansion, so it makes sense that they allocated $2.53M on October 20 on issues related to availability and appropriate uses of commercial wireless spectrum, broadband availability, and infrastructure investment.

NVE Corporation (NVEC)

NVE Corp. is a nanotechnology firm specializing in spintronic products.

• October 20: $1.5M allocated to the Heroes Act, as well as tax parity and retirement security legislation.
• July 20: $1M allocated to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act for FY 2021, covering Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies
• July 20: $770K allocated to issues related to patent reform and demand letters.

Boeing (BA)

The American aircraft manufacturer’s more surprising big spend ($3.08M) was on issues related to renewable fuel standards and biofuels. The company’s R&D efforts have included research into alternative fuels, as the industry adapts to the era of climate change. Other big spends included:

• January 21: $3.4M spent on issues related to defending American elections from threats and defending American security from Kremlin aggression.
• July 20: $3.18M allocated to issues related to arms sales, commercial aircraft sales, and international supply chain.

Waste Management, Inc. (WM)

Waste Management, Inc., is an American waste management and environmental services company. On April 19, July 19, and October 20, they spent a total of $530K on issues related to tax extenders for alternative fuels.

Which issues are receiving the most attention?

Tax policy, trade, telecommunications, and health issues have been the four most popular issues for publicly traded companies in 2020, each receiving over $50 million in lobbying spending.

How can you use our lobbying dashboard?

Lobbying spending is a great way to predict how a company could be impacted by upcoming legislation, and be prepared for legislative risk-factors that may arise.

With our lobbying dashboard, you can easily keep track of which legislative issues are most important to companies that you care about. Using the ticker search bar allows you to instantly see all of the lobbying done by a given company.

You can sort the table to see the largest spending instances, and clicking on a row will show you more details about the specific issue being lobbied for.

You can do the same with the issue search bar, and follow which companies are lobbying the most on different topics. This is a good way to generate new investment ideas based on how you feel about a certain policy item.

Contact Us

We hope that our corporate lobbying data is a useful tool for thinking about companies' legislative agendas. Please reach out to us at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or suggestions on how to improve this dataset!