Setting the course for almost a trillion dollars of government spending, the 2014 Farm Bill attracted hundreds of companies eager to find their slice of the pie.
A months-long investigation by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and Harvest Public Media found at least 600 companies that lobbied on issues related to the Farm Bill during the time the bill was being drafted. Thanks to cloudy lobbying disclosure laws, it’s nearly impossible to know just how much any one company influenced the legislation.
What we do know is that these 18 companies and groups spent at least $5 million each in total lobbying from 2012 to the First Quarter of 2014, and they each lobbied on issues related to the Farm Bill:
- Chamber of Commerce of the U S A
- Exxon Mobil Corp
- E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co.
- American Bankers Association
- Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Of America
- Grocery Manufacturers Association
- Wells Fargo & Company
- AARP
- Monsanto Company
- Independent Community Bankers of America
- Coca-Cola Company
- Association of American Railroads
- Nestle USA
- Nextera Energy, Inc. (Formerly Fpl Group, Inc.)
- BNSF Railway Company (Fka Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway)
- Bayer Corporation (Consolidated Report)
- American Forest & Paper Association
- PMI Global Services Inc.
We also know that 79 outside groups and companies that lobbied on the Farm Bill spent at least $1 million each in total lobbying during that time.
Each of these companies and groups have large lobbying budgets and, presumably, lots of influence in Washington. Use the tool below to explore our full dataset.
And check out our stories on the lobbying surrounding the Farm Bill:
