K Street is booming.

The flurry of activity from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans is fueling record-busting business downtown as corporate America, elite colleges, and lobbying groups wage high-stakes influence campaigns.

Top of the town: Ballard Partners, a firm with connections to the administration, disclosed hauling in $34.6 million in the top half of the year in fees, a new record and nearly 300% increase from the same period last year. The money came from such clients as Harvard, Palantir Technologies Inc., and TikTok. Second quarter disclosures were due at the end of Monday.

Trump’s tariffs, the new tax-and-budget law (Public Law 119-21), cuts to federal spending, and cryptocurrency legislation dominated lobbyists’ to-do lists during the first six months of Trump 2.0, as K Street now turns its focus to appropriations and fears that intensifying partisanship will scuttle efforts to reach a spending agreement before the start of the new fiscal year in October.

• “How they keep the government open is a big unknown,” said Loren Monroe, a lobbyist who chairs the state and local advocacy practice at BGR Group, a bipartisan firm with GOP ties that posted $32.2 million, its top so far, in fees from clients this year as disclosed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
  

Meta Platforms Inc., the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Business Roundtable were among the biggest spenders on federal lobbying in the first half of the year, according to newly filed disclosures. The top 10 lobbying spenders shelled out $175 million for influence campaigns in that period.

Hospitals and other health care interests fought mostly unsuccessfully against cuts to federal health programs such as Medicaid. Pharmaceutical companies ramped up over proposed tariffs.

The agenda, from an onslaught of administration executive orders to Capitol Hill debates over the new tax law and other matters, has spurred a grueling pace in lobbying on just about every policy matter this year.

OpenAI, one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies and maker of ChatGPT, is on pace for its biggest spending year yet on lobbying with $1.2 million in the first half of 2025.

Crypto company Coinbase Global Inc. disclosed spending $2.1 million on federal lobbying in the first half of the year as Congress geared up to pass major regulatory legislation backed by the industry.

“The president really came into this second administration with a roadmap and plan,” said Lindley Kratovil Sherer, who co-chairs the government relations practice at Invariant. “That’s lent itself to the ferocity that we’ve seen.” Read More

Welcome to the latest edition of Power Play, Bloomberg Government’s newsletter on the lobbying, money, and people moving Capitol Hill’s agenda from the outside.

Reach out with tips, news, complaints, and most importantly all your exclusives: kackley@bloombergindustry.com.

It’s good times for firms with connections to the Trump team and Congressional Republicans, new lobbying disclosures make clear.

Checkmate Government Relations, which opened a Washington office earlier this year and has ties to the administration and lawmakers, brought in more than $6 million this year from such clients as the Sports Betting Alliance, Eli Lilly & Co., and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Miller Strategies, another fast-growing firm with ties to the Trump team and congressional Republicans, reported lobbying revenue of $21.5 million in the first half of the year, a more than 270% increase from the same period last year.

The GOP firm CGCN Group‘s federal lobbying revenue was up more than 70% this year to $8 million, compared with the first half of last year.

On the other side of the partisan divide, Ricchetti Inc., the firm of Jeff Ricchetti, continues its downward trend this year.

Revenue at the shop, run by the brother of senior Biden White House aide Steve Ricchetti, was down more than 63% in the second quarter to $220,000, when compared to last year’s second quarter, lobbying filings show.

The firm filed a termination report for client Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc.

A coalition lobbying against legislation to limit credit card processing fees reported its biggest quarterly spend to date at $2.3 million in Q2, a new disclosure shows.

The Electronic Payments Coalition, which includes big banks and credit card companies, shelled out $4.6 million this year to firms including Ballard Partners, CGCN Group, Crossroads Strategies, Miller Strategies and others.

The opposing coalition, the Merchants Payments Coalition, disclosed a total of $120,000 on federal lobbying through the firm Nickles Group. But Doug Kantor, an executive committee member of the Merchants Payments Coalition, said that side’s lobbying is reflected in disclosures from an array of trade associations including his, the National Association of Convenience Stores, the National Federation of Independent Business, and other retail groups.

NFIB, for one, had its second biggest quarter with $3.1 million, as it worked on the credit card legislation and on tax issues, a disclosure said.

The credit card side was successful in keeping the legislation off a cryptocurrency measure that was enacted this month. Lobbyists on both sides say the fight will continue, however.

• “It’s very clear, from our perspective, that as soon as there is an opportunity for a vote on the bill that we will win that vote,” Kantor said.

Richard Hunt, who runs the Electronic Payments Coalition, said: “We’re not going anywhere either.”

Elite universities, such as the Yale campus pictured above, surged their federal lobbying this year, as the Trump administration took aim at higher education.

Photographer: Joe Buglewicz/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Elite colleges and universities have surged their lobbying expenditures this year, as they face federal funding cuts and worked to reduce a proposed tax increase on their endowments.

Brown University disclosed spending $210,000 in the second quarter of this year, including payments to Cornerstone Government Affairs, making it its biggest quarter spend ever. Cornell University, too, posted its biggest quarter ending June 30 with $444,000.

• Ballard Partners disclosed lobbying for Harvard, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Michigan.
  
• Miller Strategies lobbied for Cornell and Johns Hopkins University, disclosures show.

BGR’s higher education clients included the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, University of Wisconsin, University of California, and the University of Michigan. The firm is providing “strategic counsel” and advocating on “issues related to higher education and appropriations,” for Michigan, it disclosed in a filing.

Martha’s Vineyard will be the destination of political fundraisers in August as lawmakers flee Washington for tony resorts.

(Photo by Matt Cosby/Getty Images)

Far-flung fundraisers in Martha’s Vineyard and Sea Island, Ga., await House members and their lobbyist donors as soon as the chamber breaks for recess.

Democratic Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) and Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) plan to schmooze with donors in the tony mountain town Aspen, Colo., on July 28, according to invites making the rounds on K Street.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) has a Martha’s Vineyard brunch on the calendar for Aug. 8.

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who runs his party’s House campaign arm, plans to headline a fundraising trip in August with Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) to the privately-owned coastal island resort Sea Island, Ga., known for pristine beaches, golf, and luxury lodging.

Miller-Meeks and other Iowa lawmakers also plan to host donors at the Iowa State Fair in mid-August, with invites to lobbyists already sent.