• Rail infrastructure legislation, including authorizing and appropriations bills funding USDOT, FRA and other executive branch agencies.

Duration: July 1, 2012 to March 31, 2015

General Issues: Railroads, Transportation

Spending: about $220,000 (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 2012: U.S. Senate, House of Representatives

Affiliated organizations: The City of Garden City, Kansas; The City of Dodge City, Kansas; The City of Hutchinson, Kansas; The City of Newton, Kansas; The City of La Junta, Colorado; The City of Lamar, Colorado; The City of Trinidad, Colorado