Corporate lobbying and congressional trading: what's the relationship?

Corporate interest has solidified its presence in Washington, with lawmakers betting on what companies will bring them high stock returns and companies pouring billions into elections and lobbying for causes that directly benefit their profits.

And over the past year, we have seen some of these “DC insider” companies do exceptionally well under the current administration, with stock prices soaring and revenue from government contracts increasing.

But with companies trying to drive policy outcomes through record-breaking lobbying, do we actually see corporate lobbying efforts drive up congressional stock trading for a respective company? Or are there more reasons at play than just corporate priorities?

Using Quiver Quantitative’s data, we broke down what industries spent the most lobbying in 2025, who the top spenders were for their respective industry and what congressional trading looked like for those companies.

Top lobbyists by industry since Jan 2025

Since the beginning of 2025, tech companies have spent an estimated $54.5 million lobbying. Tech giants like Meta, Amazon and Google accounted for the majority of lobbying in 2025, with Meta among the highest corporate lobbying spenders, at around $26 million.

The tech giants’ lobbying portfolios all share one thing in common: AI infrastructure. With AI one of the most talked-about issues today, major companies are pushing for AI governance and seeking to speed up data center permitting. With AI and cloud computing being one of the most profitable sectors of the tech industry currently, tech giants have identified it as one of their top lobbying priorities. 

Meta, the top tech spender, has also allocated millions to the App Store Accountability Act, which would shift legal and financial obligations like age verification for its social media apps to app stores controlled by Apple and Google. Under COPPA protection laws, companies are required to receive parental consent to collect data on individuals aged under 13, facing major repercussions if violated. 

Other major lobbying issues for tech companies include foreign and digital goods tax policies, protection of major defense contracts (like Amazon’s multi-billion dollar AWS cloud computing contracts) and tech-related antitrust efforts pushed by the DOJ.

Much of the pharmaceutical companies’ lobbying efforts were influenced by the Inflation Reduction Act that set stricter requirements for drug pricing. IRA provisions also gave the government more say when determining fair prices of prescription drugs, causing corporations to challenge said provisions as unconstitutional and ultimately hurting research and development. 

While the IRA was passed in 2022, which was a top lobbying year for major pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, 2025 saw some of the highest lobbying per company since its original passage. The surge in lobbying was largely attributed to patent and intellectual property laws, new drug-pricing programs like TrumpRx and “Most-Favored-Nation” policy in the Big Beautiful Bill.

On the other end of the prescription drug and healthcare spectrum are the health insurers, sitting as one of the top spenders on issues like Medicare and Medicaid and drug pricing. Top insurers like UnitedHealth and Cigna saw lobbying in Washington surge for 2025; UNH specifically set new records. 

UNH and CI priorities for the past year include the Medicare Advantage program, PBM reforms and drug pricing, IRA and Affordable Care Act policies. 

It’s well known that major defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman have a solid influence in Washington, but what does that look like in terms of lobbying?

All three of the leaders in the defense industry for lobbying saw an increase in total lobbying for 2025 — the dominant issue defense companies focused lobby efforts on was the DoD Appropriations Act and the National Defense Authorization Act, pushing specifically for funding of programs like aircraft and shipbuilding, ammunition and weapons, radar systems and cloud computing. 

Leaders in the defense industry also lobbied for tax cut policies in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”, sparking criticism from lawmakers for raking in billions of dollars. 

Meta, maybe unsurprisingly, is one of the top companies traded by lawmakers since the beginning of 2025. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) led the pack in terms of number of trades – trading shares in Meta almost every month. 

But Meta wasn’t the highest traded company for the major lobbyists last year. That title instead went to Visa, whose lobbying priorities included digital payment security and privacy and issues regarding tariffs. McCaul was once again a repeat trader in Visa stock over the past year alongside Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Rep. David Taylor (R-OH). 

Despite high lobbying in 2025, Lockheed Martin maintained a fairly small volume of congressional trades in comparison to other top lobbyists, topping off at 19 trades. 

Remember McCaul? Well, he appears in trading activity across several industries, including finance, tech and automotive. McCaul sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which has some influence over trade-related policy affecting all of the aforementioned industries. 

Gotteinheimer, who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, has direct influence over issues like banking and payments. Notably, Gotteinheimer was also the most frequent trader in Visa stock, whose lobbying priority — the Credit Card Competition Act — is also handled by the committee he sits on. 

Sitting on the House Armed Services Committee, Cisneros was an active trader in Lockheed Martin stock (in addition to other federal defense contractors) and the automotive industry. Automotive leaders, like General Motors, lobbied for defense issues like infantry vehicles. 

When looking at all companies across industry lines, the correlation between corporate lobbying and congressional trading was nearly zero. While certain companies like Meta and Visa could drive a narrative that lobbying drives trading, those are the unique cases. 

Instead, it is more worth noting what industries are driving lobbying — and what their priorities are.