K Street Cashes In on Financial Reform

Everyone wanted to make extra sure that their voice was heard. As Congress debated the financial reform bill, 850 business, trade groups and other corporate interests threw over 3,000 lobbyists at Capitol Hill and spent over $1.3 billion in 2009. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce led the way with its contingent of 85 lobbyists with the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association tossing in another 54 of their own. Around 175 groups of the financial services industry, including Goldman Sachs, also hired lobbyists to target any proposal aimed directly at banks. But it seems that for all their efforts, lobbyists were drowned out by public outrage at Wall Street as the bill passed on Thursday. “Political backlash overwhelmed lobbying,” said Arthur Wilmarth Jr., a banking law expert at The George Washington University.