1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
Online Series Title: The New Health Policy Lobby Lobbyists Swarm Capitol To Influence Health Policy
Washington Lobbying Giants Cash in on Health Policy Debate
Journalists: Joe Eaton, M.B. Pell, Aaron Mehta, Caitlin Ginley, Dan Ettinger
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
2-24-2010 3-26-2010
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
A data analysis of Lobbying Disclosure Act filings by the Center for Public Integrity, "Lobbyists Swarm Capitol to Influence Health Policy," found that businesses, trade groups and other interests hired more than eight lobbyists for each member of Congress to influence Health Policy legislation. The list of organizations that worked to put their imprint on Health Policy bills ranged from health care interests and advocacy groups to giant corporations without apparent ties to the healthcare industry, small businesses, American Indian tribes, religious groups, and universities. Together, the businesses and organizations spent $1.2 billion on their lobbying efforts. The money, experts say, was well spent, with lobbyists winning massive concessions and bonuses for industry players in the final Health Policy law. The prolonged Health Policy battle was also a boon to Washington lobby firms, which recruited heavily from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and other federal agencies and used their experts to draw down record profits, according to the Center report, "Washington Lobbying Giants Cash in on Health Policy Debate."
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Government Data — The Lobbying Disclosure Act Database Although the Lobbying Disclosure Act requires lobbyists to disclosure their lobbying activities, we found that the public government database where the documents are aggregated does not adequately show specifically which bills or issues lobbyists worked on. To isolate lobbying for health care reform, we downloaded the entire Lobbying Disclosure Database and set a team of researchers working to sort the disclosure documents to find lobbying associated with of Health Policy proposals and legislation under consideration by the Obama administration and Congress. The results of that research affected the work by allowing us to develop our own health care lobbying database, which allowed us to show the true extent of industry efforts to influence health care
5. Explain types of human sources used.
Washington Lobbyists: Through extensive interviews with lobbyist on the front lines of the Health Policy battle, we were able to move beyond the numbers to show the influence of lobbying on proposals included in versions of the many Health Policy bills before Congress. Health Care Industry Representatives: We interviewed many high-level health care industry representatives to learn about their lobbying strategies, what they hoped for in Health Policy, what they were trying to prevent, and how well they felt they had achieved their goals. Other Sources: We interviewed Washington lobbying experts and academics to learn more about the industry and to find out why the Health Policy legislation generated the historic level of lobbying that it did.
6. Results (if any).
In addition to the health care lobby story, "Lobbyists Swarm Capitol to Influence Health Policy," being ranked among the Center_s top 6 most read stories in 2010 and earning robust mainstream media coverage (examples include: NYT, CNN, Newsday, Kaiser, NPR, USA Today, Reuters, Yahoo! News, & the Hill), the White House used the lobby figures in their "Health Policy by the Numbers" post on the whitehouse.gov website.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
It is important to first gain a full understanding of the Lobbying Disclosure Act and how to use the information contained in the Lobby Disclosure Act Database. Analyzing the filings is not intuitive and can lead to major miscalculations. Call the Senate Office of Public Records, the office that administers the database, before you begin your project.