Of the $75.8 million that federal lobbyists have donated to members of Congress since 2011, $58.9 million came from lobbyists who worked on issues related to taxes, according to lobbying records.

That doesn’t include the final three months of 2017, when lobbyists scrambled to influence the final version of the Republican rewrite of the tax code.

Contributions since 2011 from these 2,544 “tax lobbyists” benefited lawmakers from both parties, particularly Republicans in the first nine months of 2017, when GOP leaders worked on the first draft of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

In the nine months leading up to the House version of the bill released in November, lobbyists who had registered and actively lobbied on tax-related issues in 2017 donated nearly $9.6 million to congressional campaigns and leadership PACs.

In the 2016 election cycle, lobbyists donated about $27 million to current members of Congress and their leadership PACs.

TABLE: Contributions to current members of Congress by registered lobbyists

Cycle Total Democrats Republicans Candidate Committees Leadership PACs Dem Rep 2012 $17,081,452 $9,365,886 $7,683,172 $14,614,680 $2,466,772 55% 45% 2014 $19,729,788 $8,537,318 $11,184,095 $16,699,239 $3,030,549 43% 57% 2016 $26,987,408 $10,947,920 $16,012,706 $23,820,031 $3,167,377 41% 59% *2018 $12,020,715 $5,094,788 $6,889,800 $10,845,350 $1,175,365 42% 57%

(*Includes contributions during the first nine months of cycle)

In the first nine months of the 2018 cycle, all registered and active lobbyists donated $12 million.

About 80 percent of those donations, or $9.6 million, came from lobbyists who worked at least part time on tax issues even though they represented just 58 percent of all lobbyists. Of the 11,078 registered and active lobbyists, 4,657 were not involved in taxes, according to their quarterly disclosures.

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TABLE: Contributions to members of Congress by lobbyists who worked on tax-related issues

Year Total Democrats Republicans Candidate Committees Leadership PACs Dem Rep 2011 $6,917,178 $3,746,975 $3,167,753 $5,972,884 $944,294 54% 46% 2012 $5,756,450 $3,043,067 $2,691,789 $4,749,601 $1,006,849 53% 47% 2013 $7,527,583 $3,188,683 $4,335,900 $6,318,591 $1,208,992 42% 58% 2014 $7,798,470 $3,244,961 $4,550,009 $6,513,504 $1,284,966 42% 58% 2015 $10,861,314 $4,417,532 $6,436,832 $9,483,592 $1,377,722 41% 59% 2016 $10,377,007 $3,838,366 $6,520,809 $9,147,106 $1,229,901 37% 63% *2017 $9,610,078 $3,947,226 $5,627,252 $8,662,128 $947,950 41% 59%

(*Includes contributions during the first nine months of 2017)

Fewer tax lobbyists are driving an uptick in political contributions: The number of registered lobbyists and lobbyist donors who worked on taxes declined during the first nine months of the 2018 cycle over the same period in the 2016 cycle while average donations increased.

TABLE: Donations from tax lobbyists in the first three quarters of the year

Year (Jan-Sep) Tax Lobbyist Donors Donated Average Donation 2013 1,789 $9,696,587 $5,420 2015 1,573 $9,384,241 $5,966 2017 1,476 $9,623,128 $6,520

In the fourth quarter of 2016, tax lobbyists donated $1.5 million to lawmakers, setting up the possibility of a record-setting pace for the 2018 midterms.

Year-end campaign finance reports are due to the Federal Election Commission by Jan. 31.

Researcher Dan Auble contributed to this report.



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