Despite increased legislative activity in 2009, including major bills on health care, banking, climate change and the stimulus funds, many associations reported decreased lobbying spending in the latest quarterly report to Congress. Of the nearly 700 major associations, nonprofits and unions tracked by CEO Update, 30 percent spent less in the second quarter than in the first quarter of 2009—and that was an unusually slow spending quarter. But comparing year-to-date spending to last year, associations spent 1.4 percent less so far this year than in 2008, a far quieter time, when Washington had a divided government and a lame-duck president with no new or large legislation… Read More