lobbying_filings

Lobbying disclosure filings

One row per federal lobbying-disclosure filing, ingested from the U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) REST API (lda.gov, formerly lda.senate.gov) by build_lobbying_filings. Registrants file quarterly reports naming the clients they lobby for, the money involved, the issues raised, and the government entities (agencies/chambers) lobbied — so this table links the comment campaigns in comments/dockets to the same organizations' direct agency lobbying. Primary / dedup key is filing_uuid. All columns are stored as VARCHAR; nested/array fields are JSON strings.

Coverage. True range: every filing of each filing year held, read whole from the LDA API, from the earliest filing year the backfill has reached to date; earlier years are added one year per dispatched run (owner decision 47). Query min(filing_year) for the current start. (measured 2026-09-28)

• Parquet file: lobbying_filings.parquet
• MCP query_sql support: Configured; requires an available artifact.
• Publication status: Not established by this schema page or its measurement date.
• Row count: Not stated here; the MCP describe_table reply gives the live count under publication.

Column	Type	Description
filing_uuid	VARCHAR	LDA filing UUID (e.g. 7866327b-c892-4430-b9f0-1f0f679c58c6). Primary key / dedup key.
filing_type	VARCHAR	The LDA filing-type code as the API states it: RR registration; Q1–Q4 quarterly reports and MM the pre-2008 mid-year report; 1A–4A and MA amendments; 1T–4T and MT terminations; 1@–4@ and M@ termination amendments; a trailing Y marks a no-activity report (Q1Y, 1@Y). The LDA constants endpoint (/api/v1/constants/filing/filingtypes/) is the authority. An amendment is a separate filing that restates its quarter's report. To total amounts, drop registrations (RR, RA), which carry a filing_period too, then keep the latest filing per registrant, client_id and period: with registrations kept, a later one displaced a quarterly report in 103 groups of 2025 (measured 2026-10-03). For issues or activities, choose filing types first: a termination chain (1T, then a no-activity 1@Y) shares the period, and the latest filing can be the no-activity one.
filing_year	VARCHAR	Calendar year the filing reports on.
filing_period	VARCHAR	Reporting period within the year (e.g. first_quarter, year_end).
dt_posted	VARCHAR	Timestamp the filing was posted to the LDA system (ISO 8601 string with timezone). Sort key.
registrant_name	VARCHAR	Name of the registrant (the lobbying firm or self-filing organization).
registrant_id	VARCHAR	LDA registrant id. Stable join key across a registrant's filings.
client_name	VARCHAR	The client's name as the registrant filed it; a name, not an identity. A self-filing organization is both registrant and client, often under a spelling other registrants do not use for it (McKesson files as MCKESSON CORPORATION & AFFILIATES …). registrant_id keys the registrant across its filings and client_id keys a client only within one registrant (see client_id); a match to comments.organization or sam_entities.legal_business_name is a name match.
client_id	VARCHAR	LDA's client.id: one registrant's record of one client, stable across that registrant's filings, not an organization identity. No id is shared between registrants (129,434 ids for 129,434 registrant-client pairs, measured 2026-10-03), so an organization hired by several firms has one id per firm (AT&T Services, Inc.: 21 ids under 21 registrants in 2025).
income	VARCHAR	Lobbying income reported by a lobbying firm for the period, in USD. Null for self-filers (who report expenses). An amended report (filing_type 1A–4A) restates its quarter's amount, often unchanged, so summing over every filing counts that quarter twice; drop registrations (RR, RA) and keep the latest filing per registrant, client_id and quarter (see filing_type).
expenses	VARCHAR	Lobbying expenses reported by a self-filing organization for the period, in USD. Null for firms (who report income). An amended report (filing_type 1A–4A) restates its quarter's amount, often unchanged, so summing over every filing counts that quarter twice; drop registrations (RR, RA) and keep the latest filing per registrant, client_id and quarter (see filing_type). A self-filing organization's expenses already include what it pays outside lobbying firms, whose income for that client is reported separately; do not add the two.
lobbying_activities_json	VARCHAR	JSON array of lobbying activities, each {general_issue_code, general_issue_code_display, description} — the issue areas lobbied and their free-text descriptions.
government_entities_json	VARCHAR	JSON array of the distinct government entities lobbied ({id, name}) — the agencies and chambers (e.g. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE) named across the filing's activities.
url	VARCHAR	URL of the filing's printable document page on lda.gov (filing_document_url; lda.senate.gov redirects there).