Lobbying

Wal-Mart and the Walton family spend millions on influencing politicians on the local and national level. As profits grow, more and more money is spent to achieve the desired results.

• What the money buys

An in-depth explanation of the Wal-Mart lobbying empire: it's history, where it spends its money and the success it has achieved.

Wal-Mart has come a long way since a time when Sam Walton ran the company. Before 1998, Wal-Mart did not have a lobbying operation in Washington, DC and total political contributions numbered only $140,000. Only a wake-up call from a friendly legislator would make Wal-Mart’s leadership realize the error of its ways. >> Read More

• Wal-Mart's Lobbyists

1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007

 A list of lobbying firms that Wal-Mart has employed, which lobbyists lobbied for Wal-Mart and how much money Wal-Mart spent, by year.

• 2008 3rd Quarter Lobbying Reports

Wal-Mart Internal | Stewart Partners | Sandler Travis Rosenberg
Podesta | Patton Boggs | Miller Chevalier | Mehlman Vogel Castagetti
K&L Gates | Green Strategies | D&P Creative Strategies

The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 requires that all lobbying firms are reported on every quarter and submitted to the House of Representatives and the Senate. (All files .pdf)

• Issues lobbied on by Wal-Mart

1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007

Every three months, Lobbyists have to file disclosure forms to the Senate Office of Public Records, on which they must tell which issues they are lobbying on as required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act. Here is an aggregation of issues being lobbied on by Wal-Mart's lobbyists by year. 

• FARA and Wal-Mart

Foreign Agents Registration Act requires the disclosure of “persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities. We examine Wal-Mart lobbyists and their involvement with foreign interests.

FARA Document | Wal-Mart Watch Selected FARA document

• Lobbying firms and Issues

Walmart Watch has put together a database of how much Wal-Mart has paid 22 different lobbying firms by year and what issues each one has lobbied on. (.XLS) or (.CSV)