What are LD-1, LD-2 and LD-203 lobbying reports?

What does the law require?

The Lobbying Disclosure Act is the source of three filings. Section 1603 covers registration: no later than 45 days after a lobbyist first makes a lobbying contact, or is employed or retained to make one, whichever is earlier (or on the first business day after the 45th day if it falls on a non-business day), the lobbyist, or the organization employing the lobbyist, must register with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Section 1604 covers the reports that follow.

If a deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, the statute moves it to the next business day. The House lobbying disclosure site publishes guidance on all three, last revised 28 February 2025, and has its own home page.

What is in an LD-2?

According to section 1604(b), each quarterly report contains the registrant's name, the client's name and updates to the registration, and, for each general issue area in which the registrant lobbied for the client:

• a list of the specific issues, including, to the maximum extent practicable, bill numbers and references to specific executive branch actions;
• a statement of the Houses of Congress and the federal agencies contacted;
• the employees who acted as lobbyists for the client; and
• a description of the interest, if any, of any foreign entity identified in the registration in the specific issues.

A lobbying firm also reports a good-faith estimate of the income received from the client for lobbying, and an organization lobbying for itself reports its expenses. A separate report is filed for each client. If income or expenses are under $5,000 for the period, the report includes a statement to that effect. OQRO's article on how to read an LD-2 walks through a real one.

What is an LD-203?

Section 1604(d) requires registered organizations and each employee listed as a lobbyist to file, not later than 30 days after the end of each semiannual period beginning in January and July, a report on certain contributions. The guidance says registrants and active lobbyists file separate reports detailing contributions under the Federal Election Campaign Act, honorary contributions and other contributions it lists. So an LD-203 is about money given, not lobbying done.

When must someone register at all?

The guidance states that the thresholds are adjusted for inflation. After 1 January 2025, an organization employing in-house lobbyists is exempt from registration if its total expenses for lobbying activities do not exceed and are not expected to exceed $16,000 in a quarterly period, and the income threshold for lobbying firms is $3,500. Below those figures a firm or organization need not register for that client or quarter. The guidance has a full section on who must register and when.

What did the JACK Act add?

The guidance says the Justice Against Corruption on K Street Act of 2018 amended the Lobbying Disclosure Act, effective 3 January 2019, so that registrations and quarterly reports must disclose any listed lobbyist convicted in a federal or state court of an offense involving bribery, extortion, embezzlement, an illegal kickback, tax evasion, fraud, a conflict of interest, a false statement, perjury or money laundering. The online system has fields for it.

Where do you search them?

The registrations and reports are filed with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House, and the House lobbying disclosure site publishes the guidance. OQRO shows each company's lobbying reports on its company pages and links the original filing.

How do the three filings fit together?

An illustration. A lobbying firm is retained by a client in one month. It must register within 45 days of being retained or making its first lobbying contact, whichever is earlier, which is the LD-1. After each quarter it files an LD-2 for that client within 20 days of the quarter's end, listing issues, bills, the Houses of Congress and agencies contacted and a good-faith income estimate. In July and January it and each listed lobbyist file an LD-203 on contributions. A later quarter with no LD-2 can have several explanations that the guidance covers, for example that the registration was validly terminated, since reports are expected until a registration is terminated.

What this does not tell you

A lobbying report says who lobbied for whom, on which issues, and roughly how much was spent. It does not say what was said, whether the lobbying worked, or how it relates to any contract or vote. Amounts are estimates in the form the law prescribes. A report for a quarter exists only if the filer was registered and above the thresholds. See also how to find federal contracts for a public company for the other side of the government relationship, and the contracts page.