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
Every outside firm that has filed on this client's behalf, by fees reported.
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.
What they lobby on
Issue areas declared on the filings, ranked by how many filings name each one.
Health Issues
HCR
69 filings
$8.1M on those filings
Medicare/Medicaid
MMM
59 filings
$7M on those filings
Taxation/Internal Revenue Code
Bills named in the filings
The 15 most-cited of 150 bill references, extracted from the activity descriptions.
H.R. 1227117th CongressMedicare-X Choice Act of 20219 filingsthrough 2022
JACK S DEUSER jrThe Smith-Free Group, LLC71 filingsthrough 2025
W. Timothy LockeThe Smith-Free Group, LLC64 filingsthrough 2024
James C FreeThe Smith-Free Group, LLC62 filingsthrough 2024
Robert HickmottThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: Dep. Ch. of Staff, U.S. Sen. Tim Wirth56 filingsthrough 2024
Trevor W. KolegoThe Smith-Free Group, LLC Director of Member Services, Speaker John Boehner; Manager of Member Services, Leader John Boehner; Leg. Director, Rep. Jon Porter; Leg. Assist, Rep. Chris Cannon
The filings
The 20 most recent of 74 filings. Every figure above is built from these records.
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: hca.
TAX
27 filings
$3M on those filings
Budget/Appropriations
BUD
24 filings
$2.9M on those filings
Labor Issues/Antitrust/Workplace
LBR
19 filings
$1.7M on those filings
Consumer Issues/Safety/Products
CSP
8 filings
$920K on those filings
Communications/Broadcasting/Radio/TV
COM
6 filings
$910K on those filings
Banking
BAN
6 filings
$660K on those filings
Insurance
INS
4 filings
$620K on those filings
Veterans
VET
4 filings
$520K on those filings
Education
EDU
2 filings
$230K on those filings
Financial Institutions/Investments/Securities
FIN
1 filing
$130K 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.
117th Congress
Medicare for All Act of 2021
9 filingsthrough 2022
H.R. 688117th CongressEqual Access to Care Act9 filingsthrough 2022
H.R. 20118th CongressRichard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 20238 filingsthrough 2024
H.R. 977118th CongressPatient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act of 20238 filingsthrough 2024
H.R. 4058117th CongressTelemental Health Care Access Act of 20218 filingsthrough 2022
H.R. 1301116th CongressMental Health Telemedicine Expansion Act8 filingsthrough 2020
H.R. 1384116th CongressMedicare for All Act of 20198 filingsthrough 2020
H.R. 1559116th Congress340B Protection and Accountability Act of 20198 filingsthrough 2020
H.R. 2000116th CongressMedicare-X Choice Act of 20198 filingsthrough 2020
H.R. 1156115th CongressPatient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act of 20178 filingsthrough 2018
H.R. 208115th CongressEnsuring Health Care Opportunities Act8 filingsthrough 2018
H.R. 242115th CongressMedicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 20178 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.
Covered position:
44 filingsthrough 2026
Michael A. GaffinThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: Leg. Director, Sen. Sherrod Brown; Leg. Director, Rep. Rob Andrews; Leg. Asst., Rep. Anna Eshoo; Jr. Leg. Assoc., House Ed. and Labor Committee, Rep. George Miller; Staff Asst., Senate HELP Committee, Sen. Edward Kennedy23 filingsthrough 2026
JOHN CHRISTIE iiiThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: Ch. Rep. of Staff, Rep. Alma Adams; Leg. Director, Rep. Alma Adams; Senior Leg. Assist., Rep. Alma Adams; Leg. Assist., Rep. Alma Adams; Leg. Correspondent/Leg. Aide, Rep. Norma Torres18 filingsthrough 2026
Summer MersingerThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: DC Chief of Staff, Sen John Thune; S Policy Adv, Senate Commerce Committee; Dep Chief of Staff, Sen John Thune; Gen Couns, Sen John Thune; Exec Dir, Sen John Thune; Confidential Assist, OPIC; Exec Assist, Rep John Thune; Staff Assist, Rep John Thune18 filingsthrough 2019
Sarah Dumont MerchakThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: Director of Congressional Affairs, Federal Housing Finance Agency; Professional Staff Member, Senate Banking Committee10 filingsthrough 2023
Andrew BarbourThe Smith-Free Group, LLC8 filingsthrough 2014
Mike MullenThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: Sr. Leg. Asst., Rep. Mike Doyle5 filingsthrough 2026
Chris ScribnerThe Smith-Free Group, LLC2 filingsthrough 2020
Martin A CorryHooper, Lundy & Bookman, P.C.2 filingsthrough 2017
James E SmithThe Smith-Free Group, LLC1 filingthrough 2010
Alicia W SmithThe Smith-Free Group, LLC1 filingthrough 2008
Covered positions · 8 of 16 lobbyists named on these filings disclosed a prior government post. The text is reproduced exactly as filed.
