The Senate Office of Public Records' Lobbying Disclosure Act Database provides useful tools for searching through federal lobbyist filings to learn which companies and organizations have contracted lobbyists to advance their legislative interests or seek federal funding. Lobbyist Registrations and Lobbying Reports are kept in the database from 1999 through the most recently submitted quarter. From these forms, you can learn details about which companies have hired which lobbying firms, the issues or specific legislation they lobbied on, the legislative chambers or federal agencies they lobbied, the individual lobbyists who worked on a project and the amount of money the company spent on lobbying.
When searching the database, there are several search methods to choose from. The database can be narrowed down with up to five search criteria, and the results are returned in tables summarizing the resulting documents and providing links to complete PDF scans of each form. Several possible searches include: all forms filed in a given time period, all activity by an individual lobbyist or lobbying firm, or all lobbying activity that was hired by a given client or firm.