Who pays to lobby the state government.

Sources: Iowa Legislature, Lobbyist Information; Iowa Legislature, Search Lobbyist Database: lobbyists and clients, 91st General Assembly, Session 2 (2026); Iowa Legislature, Search Lobbyist Database: lobbyists and clients, 91st General Assembly, Session 1 (2025); Iowa Legislature, Lobbyist Client Reports, 2026 (reporting period July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2026); Iowa Code 2026, chapter 68B (sections 68B.36 registration and 68B.38 client reporting); Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, Executive Branch Lobbying.

How to read this

Iowa uses one registration system, run by the Chief Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate, for lobbyists of both the Legislature and the executive branch (governor's office and state agencies); the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board enforces the executive-branch rules but takes no separate filings. For the 2026 session (91st General Assembly, second session), 673 lobbyists and 1,150 clients were on the Legislature's lists on Oct. 20, 2026, in 2,846 lobbyist-client pairings. The lists include registrations later cancelled (34 lobbyists). By the branch boxes on each registration, 604 lobbyists marked both branches, 56 the Legislature only, 7 the executive branch only and 6 neither; 21 marked “Represent Gov's Office.” Iowa does collect what clients pay lobbyists: by July 31 each year every client files a report of all salaries, fees, retainers and reimbursed expenses paid to each lobbyist for lobbying in the 12 months ending June 30, covering both branches, and must file even when the amount is zero (Iowa Code 68B.38; the zero-amount rule is stated on the Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board's Executive Branch Lobbying page). The table ranks the 1,201 client reports filed for July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2026: 902 reported more than $0 and 299 reported $0 or left every amount blank or non-numeric. Each figure is the sum of the numeric amounts on one report as filed; a payment to a firm is listed under the firm, often with its lobbyists at $0. These reports cover a different 12 months from the 2026 registration counts and are kept separate from them. 46 clients filed more than one report under the same name (usually for different lobbyists); they are listed by report and never combined here. Combined, Hy-Vee's three reports (no lobbyist named twice) come to $140,209.00 and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services' three to $132,000.00, which would place both in this list. For context, the 2025 session lists name 727 lobbyists and 1,124 clients.

What is not here yet

• Iowa's lists for a session keep registrations that were later cancelled, with the date in a comment; the counts include them. There is no as-of-date report of registrations active on a single day.
• Client reports for July 2026 - June 2027 are due July 31, 2027; the 2026 reports cover July 2025 - June 2026, so they span the end of the 2025 session and all of the 2026 session and do not line up with the registration counts.
• 562 of 3,234 lobbyist lines on the 2026 client reports have no number in the amount box (a dash, n/a, blank, none, or text such as “1130/month”); they are left out of the sums as filed. 28 of them contain a figure written as text, the largest $28,000; none would move a client into the top list.
• Clients that filed several reports under one name are ranked report by report. Some of those reports name the same lobbyist or firm twice, so combining them could double count; the two combinations with no lobbyist named twice that would reach the list (Hy-Vee, $140,209.00; Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, $132,000.00) are described in the note.
• Iowa does not publish client reports as a bulk file; each of the 1,201 report pages was downloaded and saved unchanged in a zip archive.
• Lobbyist declarations on bills and function (event) reports were not pulled for this summary.

Gaps in the lobbying records as of the date checked.