• National Defense Authorization and Defense Appropriations bills, Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation (IP-IMI) grant; High Power Laser Technology Initiative

Duration: April 1, 2015 to January 1, 2018

General Issues: Defense, Budget/Appropriations

Spending: about $0 (But it's complicated. Here's why.)

It can be tricky to figure out how much an organization spent on a particular lobbying engagement. The law only requires lobbyists to report the amount they were paid for federal lobbying each quarter rounded to the nearest $10,000—and if it's less than $3,000 in a given quarter (or less than $13,000 for organizations with in-house lobbyists), they don't have to disclose it at all. Plus, some organizations include spending that doesn’t belong in the report—for instance, money spent lobbying state governments or other legal work.

Agencies lobbied since 2015: U.S. Senate