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Pennsylvania · lobbying records · 2025-2026 registration period (Jan. 1, 2025 - Dec. 31, 2026), registrations counted through Dec. 31, 2025Checked Oct. 20, 2026

Who pays to lobby the state government.

Registered lobbyists, their clients and what the clients reported, from Pennsylvania’s lobbying records.

1,242

registered lobbyists

Lobbyist registrations counted by the Department of State for 2025, the first year of the 2025-2026 registration period (annual report issued May 8, 2026). Lobbying firms are counted separately (146).

2,255

clients (lobbyist employers)

Principal registrations (organizations and people paying for lobbying) counted by the Department of State for 2025, the first year of the 2025-2026 registration period.

Principals with the most reported lobbying costs: not yet pulled (the state's search system blocked our download)

No principal-by-principal amounts yet. Statewide, the Department of State totals the lobbying costs that principals allocated on their quarterly expense reports at $150,091,511 for the period it labels 2024-25: $111,749,625 for direct communication, $36,653,121 for indirect communication and $1,688,765 for gifts, hospitality, transportation and lodging for state officials. These are principals' total reported lobbying costs (staff, office and outside-lobbyist costs), not campaign contributions and not federal or local lobbying.

Sources: Pennsylvania Department of State, Lobbying Disclosure; Pennsylvania Department of State, 2025 Lobbying Disclosure Annual Report (issued May 8, 2026); Pennsylvania Department of State, 2024 Lobbying Disclosure Annual Report; Pennsylvania Department of State, Lobbying Disclosure Renewal 2025-2026; Pennsylvania Department of State, Frequently Asked Questions About Lobbying Disclosure; 65 Pa.C.S. Chapter 13A, Lobbying Disclosure (section 13A05, reporting); Pennsylvania Lobbying Disclosure filing and search system (read, not saved).

How to read this

Pennsylvania's Lobbying Disclosure Law (65 Pa.C.S. Chapter 13A, Act 134 of 2006) requires lobbyists, lobbying firms and principals (the organizations that pay for lobbying) to register with the Department of State every two years; the 2025-2026 period runs Jan. 1, 2025 through Dec. 31, 2026, and the fee is $300. The Department's 2025 annual report, issued May 8, 2026, counts 3,643 registrations for 2025: 2,255 principals, 1,242 lobbyists and 146 lobbying firms; 585 of them (384 principals, 182 lobbyists, 19 firms) were new registrations. During 2025, 128 principals, 90 lobbyists and 4 firms filed terminations, and 255 principals, 178 lobbyists and 20 firms from the previous period were left in expired status; the report does not say whether terminated registrations are inside the 3,643. Each registered principal files a quarterly expense report within 30 days of the end of each quarter giving its total lobbying costs, split among three categories that do not overlap: gifts, hospitality, transportation and lodging for state officials or employees; direct communication; and indirect communication (65 Pa.C.S. 13A05). The Department's 2025 report totals the allocated costs at $150,091,511: $111,749,625 for direct communication, $36,653,121 for indirect communication and $1,688,765 for gifts, hospitality, transportation and lodging. The same report lists the ten subjects with the largest reported costs, labeled 2024-25 (health care, $33,914,862; education, $20,274,773; state budget, $20,056,060; energy, $19,144,636; transportation, $15,492,393); a report can name several subjects, so subject totals are not added to each other or to the grand total. The report does not say which quarters its 2024-25 cost figures cover. Its 2024 report gave $150,078,073 for the period it labeled 2023-2024; the two are kept apart. We could not rank individual principals: the Department's filing and search system (palobbyingservices.pa.gov) refused automated downloads from our workspace, so the table of top principals is empty until each principal's quarterly reports can be saved and totaled.

What is not here yet

  • The Department of State's lobbying search system (palobbyingservices.pa.gov), the only place individual registrations and quarterly expense reports are published, answered every download from our workspace with a bot-protection block (Incapsula, HTTP 403). Its search page was read through a web reader (read, not saved): it offers an 'Export All' button and searches by quarter and by total lobbying cost, but both work only through the page's form, which we could not submit. No principal-by-principal amounts were pulled, so no top principals are listed.
  • Registration counts are the Department's own totals for calendar 2025 from its annual report, not a count of registrations active on Oct. 20, 2026; registrations filed, terminated or expired in 2026 are not reflected.
  • The annual report labels its cost totals and subjects '2024-25' without saying which quarters are included; they may not match the 2025-2026 registration counts.
  • Quarterly expense reports for 2026 (due April 30, July 30 and Oct. 30, 2026) were not pulled.
  • Equity reports (Act 70 of 2021: lobbyists' ownership stakes in principals they lobby for) were not pulled for this summary.
  • The ten subject names in the 2025 annual report are printed in a garbled font; we read them from the letter shapes and the icons beside each figure. The dollar figures are printed normally.

Gaps in the lobbying records as of the date checked.