Every filing period on record, as reported. One column per filed period — a period with no column is a period with no filing, not a zero.
Basis · Amendments and terminations supersede the original report for the same registrant, client and period, so a revised quarter is counted once at its latest filed value. Registration-only filings carry no activity money and are excluded from these totals.
Who lobbies for them
This organization files only for itself — no outside firm has reported fees for it.
Reported as lobbying expenses
Money reported as spent on lobbying rather than as a fee paid to an outside firm. See the full list.
Issue areas declared on the filings, ranked by how many filings name each one.
Veterans
VET
66 filings
$4.5M on those filings
Defense
DEF
56 filings
$4.3M on those filings
Education
EDU
Bills named in the filings
The 15 most-cited of 1,360 bill references, extracted from the activity descriptions.
H.R. 1005115th CongressTo amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the provision of adult day health care services for veterans.17 filingsthrough 2018
H.R. 105115th CongressProtect Veterans from Financial Fraud Act of 201717 filingsthrough 2018
This record groups every filed spelling of the client's name into one entity, so "MERCK & CO., INC." and "MERCK & CO INC" read as the same company. The grouping is the client's normalized name — organizations that file under genuinely different names appear separately. Handle: american-legion.
Reading this · LD-2 reports a hired firm's fee and a registrant's reported expenses on separate lines and never both on one filing, so the two lists above are different quantities and are ranked separately rather than against each other. Firm names link to their own record as the firms chapter lands.
39 filings
$1.1M on those filings
Labor Issues/Antitrust/Workplace
LBR
36 filings
$1M on those filings
Constitution
CON
35 filings
$851K on those filings
Foreign Relations
FOR
32 filings
$3.5M on those filings
Housing
HOU
30 filings
$817K on those filings
Homeland Security
HOM
29 filings
$2.4M on those filings
Small Business
SMB
29 filings
$948K on those filings
Law Enforcement/Crime/Criminal Justice
LAW
16 filings
$337K on those filings
Taxation/Internal Revenue Code
TAX
3 filings
$90K on those filings
Budget/Appropriations
BUD
1 filing
$11K on those filings
Note · A filing names one to several issue areas and reports a single dollar figure for the period, so the same money appears beside every issue that filing declares. The dollar column is therefore spend on filings that named this issue — it is not a split of the total, and these figures sum above it. Filing counts do not double-count.
H.R. 1216115th CongressProtecting Veterans From School Closures Act of 201717 filingsthrough 2018
H.R. 1259115th CongressVA Accountability First Act of 201717 filingsthrough 2018
H.R. 1328115th CongressAmerican Heroes COLA Act of 201717 filingsthrough 2018
H.R. 1379115th CongressTo amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for the entitlement to educational assistance under the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs for members of the Armed Forces awarded the Purple Heart.17 filingsthrough 2018
H.R. 1390115th CongressTo amend title 38, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to pay costs relating to the transportation of certain deceased veterans to veterans' cemeteries owned by a State or tribal organization.17 filingsthrough 2018
H.R. 1564115th CongressVA Beneficiary Travel Act of 201717 filingsthrough 2018
H.R. 1848115th CongressVeterans Affairs Medical Scribe Pilot Act of 201717 filingsthrough 2018
H.R. 299115th CongressBlue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 201817 filingsthrough 2018
How these are found · Bill references are extracted from the free-text activity description each filing writes, then matched to the Congress in session that filing year. A reference we can't match to a bill on file is still shown, unlinked — we cite what the filing said rather than guess at what it meant. Naming a bill is not a position on it: LD-2 records that a client lobbied on the bill, never which side.
through 2019
Frederick GessnerThe American LegionCovered position: National Security Deputy Director42 filingsthrough 2019
John J. KaminThe American Legion41 filingsthrough 2023
Lawrence MontreuilThe American Legion31 filingsthrough 2023
Verna L. JonesThe American Legion31 filingsthrough 2018
Dean StolineThe American Legion31 filingsthrough 2016
Ian DeplanqueThe American Legion30 filingsthrough 2016
Gerardo AvilaThe American Legion26 filingsthrough 2019
Joseph GrassiThe American Legion26 filingsthrough 2016
ARIEL A DE JESUS jrThe American Legion24 filingsthrough 2019
Peter GaytanThe American Legion24 filingsthrough 2014
Roscoe ButlerThe American Legion22 filingsthrough 2018
Matthew John ShumanThe American LegionCovered position: Legislative Director21 filingsthrough 2019
Rhonda PowellThe American LegionCovered position: National Security Director16 filingsthrough 2021
Larry LohmannThe American Legion16 filingsthrough 2019
Jacob GaddThe American Legion16 filingsthrough 2014
Jake CorsiThe American LegionCovered position: Legislative Associate15 filingsthrough 2026
Eric JohnsonThe American Legion14 filingsthrough 2025
Julia MathisThe American Legion14 filingsthrough 2025
Davy Gunnery LeghornThe American Legion14 filingsthrough 2019
Chanin NuntavongThe American LegionCovered position: Legislative Director13 filingsthrough 2024
Zachary Alexander Rockford HearnThe American Legion13 filingsthrough 2016
John StovallThe American Legion13 filingsthrough 2014
JOHN THEODORE MEDIN ivThe American Legion10 filingsthrough 2021
Ernest J. RobinsonThe American Legion10 filingsthrough 2019
Olivia Lee Gerrior BabineThe American LegionCovered position: LA to Rep. Tipton9 filingsthrough 2023
Thomas GoodThe American Legion9 filingsthrough 2019
Covered positions · 13 of 76 lobbyists named on these filings disclosed a prior government post. The text is reproduced exactly as filed.
