• Seeking federal support for road improvements in the FY 2011 Transportation, HUD Appropriations Bill; and seeking federal support for environmental infrastructure improvements in the FY 2011 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill; Monitoring federal grant opportunities to support healthcare and economic development initiatives.

Duration: December 1, 2009 to October 31, 2010

General Issues: Urban Development/Municipalities

Spending: about $30,000 (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 2009: House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, Veterans Affairs - Dept of (VA), Economic Development Administration