Group Apparently Overstates Money Spent On Lobbying.

In May, Reps. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., and Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., introduced a bill to reform lobbying disclosure rules, citing the enormous growth in lobbying spending documented by the Center for Public Integrity's new "LobbyWatch" Web site. But the Web site's lobbying figures may be significantly overstated. Senate guidelines direct organizations to report how much they spent on lobbying, including both in-house expenses and payments made to outside firms. The outside firms also must report what they were paid. The Center for Public Integrity found that many companies failed to report outside expenditures, and therefore decided to add together the reports of the clients and the lobbyists in all cases. The center now acknowledges that in cases in which companies followed the Senate guidelines, "LobbyWatch" overstates their lobbying expenditures. Nevertheless, the center stands by its numbers as an accurate representation of the amount spent on lobbying since 1998. CPI's Bill Allison said, "We're simply trying to make a best estimate based on the very difficult, flawed data we have to work with." A full story on problems with the "LobbyWatch" database appears in Friday's issue of National Journal.