K Street firms post big earnings gains for 2019 – By Kate Ackley (Roll Call) / Jan 21 2020
Trade, health care and immigration issues paced lobbying spending last year
Lobbying firms are working with clients about their agendas for 2021, which will be hugely dependent upon who wins the White House this November. (CQ Roll Call file photo)
K Street’s top-tier firms posted sizable gains last year, fueled by technology, pharmaceutical and big-business interests concerned with such policy matters as trade, health care, taxation and government spending.
And lobbyists say impeachment proceedings and the 2020 campaigns haven’t yet derailed the influence industry’s agenda this year.
“Maybe I’m an optimist, but out of impeachment could come a mutual interest in actually trying to address some issues to respond to the American people’s interest in bipartisan work,” said Marc Lampkin, who leads the Washington office at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. “You’ve got an electorate that wants to see their Congress and the executive branch get some things done.”
Brownstein Hyatt’s federal lobbying revenue increased by about 30 percent between 2018 and 2019, according to recently filed disclosure reports filed with Congress under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. The firm hauled in about $40.8 million from such clients as T-Mobile, the Cannabis Trade Federation and McDonald’s Corp.
Continue to article: https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/k-street-firms-post-big-earnings-gains-for-2019
