Finance Lobby Cut Spending as Feds Targeted Wall Street

WASHINGTON -- The financial industry cut spending on lobbying and campaign contributions this year, even as the Obama administration drafted a sweeping plan to tighten federal control over its players.

In the first three months of 2009, the financial sector spent $104.7 million to lobby Congress and the administration, down 8% from the same period last year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of the most recent data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks the lobbying business. In each of the previous five years, the industry's spending had risen.

The health-care industry -- which three years ago surpassed finance as the top lobbying spender and faces a major overhaul initiative in Washington -- increased outlays in the first quarter by 12% to $127.1 million. Lobbying spending across all business sectors was flat in the period, after rising 15% from 2007 to 2008.

Source: wsj.com