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.
Copyright/Patent/Trademark
CPT
67 filings
$9M on those filings
Trade (domestic/foreign)
TRD
64 filings
$8.6M on those filings
Taxation/Internal Revenue Code
Bills named in the filings
The 15 most-cited of 59 bill references, extracted from the activity descriptions.
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: sony-pictures-entertainment.
TAX
59 filings
$7.9M on those filings
Economics/Economic Development
ECN
25 filings
$3.5M on those filings
Insurance
INS
19 filings
$2.4M on those filings
Consumer Issues/Safety/Products
CSP
18 filings
$1.9M on those filings
Labor Issues/Antitrust/Workplace
LBR
13 filings
$1.5M on those filings
Arts/Entertainment
ART
12 filings
$1.6M on those filings
Telecommunications
TEC
10 filings
$1.4M on those filings
Budget/Appropriations
BUD
3 filings
$420K on those filings
Commodities (big ticket)
CDT
2 filings
$320K on those filings
Education
EDU
2 filings
$300K 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.
115th Congress
Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act of 2017
3 filingsthrough 2018
S. 2976119th CongressHIRE Act2 filingsthrough 2025
H.R. 4279110th CongressPrioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 20082 filingsthrough 2008
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.
17 filingsthrough 2026
Sarah Dumont MerchakThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: Director of Congressional Affairs, Federal Housing Finance Agency; Professional Staff Member, Senate Banking Committee9 filingsthrough 2023
Trevor W. KolegoThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: Director of Member Services, Speaker John Boehner; Manager of Member Services, Leader John Boehner; Leg. Director, Rep. John Porter; Leg. Assistant, Rep. Chris Cannon8 filingsthrough 2023
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 Assist., Senate HELP Committee, Sen. Edward Kennedy6 filingsthrough 2022
Mike MullenThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: Sr. Leg. Asst., Rep. Mike Doyle5 filingsthrough 2026
Summer MersingerThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: DC Chief of Staff, Sen. John Thune; Sen. Policy Adv., Senate Commerce Cmte; Dep. Chief of Staff,Sen. John Thune; Gen Counsel,Sen. John Thune; Exec Dir., Sen. John Thune; Confidential Asst.,OPIC; Exec Asst,Rep. John Thune; Staff Asst,Rep. John Thune5 filingsthrough 2018
W. Timothy LockeThe Smith-Free Group, LLC4 filingsthrough 2012
Philip G KikoThe Smith-Free Group, LLCCovered position: Acting Dir./Dep.Dir.(Hrgs&Appls),D.O.I.3 filingsthrough 2014
