Who pays to lobby the Legislature.
Registered lobbyists, the principals who hire them and what lobbyists reported being paid, from the records of the Clerk of the Nebraska Legislature.
registered lobbyists
Unique lobbyists registered for 2026 as counted by the Clerk of the Legislature on Oct. 20, 2026: 445 compensated and 38 non-compensated (the Clerk's two figures add to more than its unique total, so some lobbyists are counted in both). The Clerk's lists include lobbying firms (for example HBS) as lobbyists alongside people. The registration list marks 55 lobbyist lines as withdrawn (WD) during the year; the Clerk does not say whether its counts include them.
clients (lobbyist employers)
Unique principals (lobbyists' employers or clients) registered for 2026, as counted by the Clerk on Oct. 20, 2026: 708 with compensated lobbyists and 34 with non-compensated lobbyists (some in both). 1,058 lobbyist-principal registrations in all (1,013 compensated, 45 non-compensated).
| Tallgrass Energy | $170,061.99 |
| Nebraska Medicine | $166,103.56 |
| Nebraska Hospital Association | $144,764.04 |
| League of Nebraska Municipalities | $137,225.00 |
| Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation | $133,500.00 |
| Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry | $118,400.00 |
| Nebraska Association of County Officials | $117,738.50 |
| Omaha Public Power District | $110,018.97 |
| Nebraska Council of School Administrators | $93,644.08 |
| Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council | $93,395.00 |
| Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital | $90,000.00 |
| Elk Creek Resources Corp | $89,644.83 |
| Nebraska Health Care Association, Inc. | $88,658.87 |
| Nebraska Medical Association | $88,556.00 |
| Nebraska Bankers Association | $86,591.54 |
| Mutual of Omaha | $79,224.38 |
| University of Nebraska | $75,943.60 |
| Nebraska Insurance Federation | $75,300.00 |
| Lincoln Chamber of Commerce | $75,000.00 |
| Altria Client Services LLC and its Affiliates | $72,043.39 |
| RAI Services Co. (Reynolds American Inc.) | $69,000.00 |
| Centene Corporation on behalf of its affiliates and subsidiaries | $66,000.00 |
| City of Omaha | $64,714.86 |
| Charter Communications Operating, LLC | $64,678.56 |
| Underdog Fantasy | $63,000.00 |
Compensation that registered lobbyists reported receiving from this principal for lobbying (line 1 of their quarterly Form B reports) for January through June 2026, the first two quarters of 2026, added up across the principal's lobbyists from the Clerk of the Legislature's Lobby Quarterly Report by Lobbyist. Not reimbursed expenses, not other lobbying expenditures, not campaign contributions, and not the principal's total lobbying spending.
Sources: Nebraska Legislature, Registered Lobbyists (Clerk of the Legislature report index); Clerk of the Legislature, Counts of Lobbyists/Principals for 2026 (printed Oct. 20, 2026); Clerk of the Legislature, Lobby Registration Report by Principal, as of Oct. 20, 2026; Clerk of the Legislature, Lobby Registration Report by Lobbyist, as of Oct. 20, 2026; Clerk of the Legislature, Lobby Quarterly Report by Lobbyist, 2026 (printed Oct. 20, 2026); Clerk of the Legislature, Lobby Quarterly Report by Principal, April 1 to June 30, 2026 (printed Aug. 13, 2026); Nebraska Legislature, View Lobbyist Records: expense totals for Form B and Form C (search results, POST); Clerk of the Legislature, Lobby Filing Information and report deadlines (2026); Lobbying Guide: Statutes, Rules and Regulations (revised July 2024).
How to read this
Nebraska lobbyists register with the Clerk of the Legislature for each principal (the person or organization that hires them or that they lobby for) once a calendar year; 2025 registrations ran out Dec. 31, 2025. The law is the Nebraska Political Accountability and Disclosure Act, and the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission answers questions about it. Every quarter, each lobbyist files a report (Form B) for each principal, and each principal files one report (Form C), due 30 days after the quarter ends. Nebraska asks for money paid to lobbyists: lobbyists report the pay they received for lobbying and any expense reimbursements, and principals report what they paid their lobbyists, along with entertainment, gifts, travel, lodging and other lobbying costs, with the parts spent on members of the Legislature and on elected executive officials shown separately. As of Oct. 20, 2026 the Clerk counted 473 lobbyists and 734 principals on 1,058 registrations. The table ranks principals by the pay their lobbyists reported receiving from them for January through June 2026. Third-quarter reports (July-September) are due Oct. 30, 2026 and are left out, so the figures cover half a year. In Nebraska a lobbying firm, or a lobbyist, is often also registered as the principal of the lobbyists who work for or with it, so its own staff report pay from the firm. Those principals are listed apart from the table: their rows show a firm paying its own people, while the firm's clients appear in the table with what their lobbyists, including the firm, reported receiving from them. Names are as the Clerk prints them. Being a principal or paying a lobbyist is lawful and public; these records show who paid for lobbying, not that any official acted because of it.
What is not here yet
- Third-quarter 2026 reports (July-September) are due Oct. 30, 2026; the Clerk's report printed Oct. 20 had only 310 lobbyist lines for that quarter, so the ranking stops at June 30. Fourth-quarter reports are due Feb. 1, 2027. Late filings and amendments after Oct. 20 are not included.
- The ranking uses what lobbyists reported receiving, not what principals reported paying. The Clerk's report by principal on its site covers only the second quarter; for the top 25 principals, 20 principal reports matched their lobbyists' second-quarter figures to the cent; the other 5 (Nebraska Council of School Administrators; Elk Creek Resources Corp; Nebraska Medical Association; Lincoln Chamber of Commerce; Underdog Fantasy) differ, as shown under checks; the reports do not say why. A per-principal Form C figure for the first quarter would need one search per principal on the Clerk's site and was not pulled.
- 16 principals whose names match a registered lobbyist's (lobbying firms, or lobbyists registered as the principal of the people who work for or with them) are left out of the ranking and listed separately. A firm registered as a principal under a name different from its lobbyist registration would not be caught by this name match and could still appear in the table; the 25 names shown were read and none is a lobbying firm by name, but that is our reading, not the Clerk's classification.
- Principal names are grouped exactly as printed on each lobbyist's report; a principal printed with an exemption note or spelled two ways counts separately.
- Counts are the Clerk's own figures. Our parse of its registration list by principal agrees: 734 principals and 1,058 lobbyist-principal lines, with 472 distinct lobbyist names against the Clerk's 473 unique lobbyists (two lobbyists sharing a name would explain the difference; not resolved).
- Lobbying expenses other than pay (entertainment, gifts and admissions for members of the Legislature and elected executive officials, travel, lodging) are on the same reports; only statewide totals are shown here. Which officials received them, where the reports say, was not checked.
- Statements of activity (Form D, the bills each lobbyist worked on) were saved but not analyzed.
- 2025 is shown only as statewide totals from the Clerk's search page; the report PDFs on the Clerk's lobbying page are 2026 versions, and no 2025 report by principal or by lobbyist was found, so a 2025 ranking is not yet checked. An older folder on the site holds 2024 reports through Sept. 30, 2024; years before 2025 were not pulled.
- These records cover lobbying as the Clerk's lobbying guide describes Nebraska law: efforts on behalf of others to influence legislation and resolutions before the Legislature. Lobbying outside that definition is not in them.
Gaps in the lobbying records as of the date checked.