# Federal Lobbying Disclosures Scraper (`talcoe/senate-lobbying`) Actor

Senate LDA lobbying registrations and quarterly reports, filterable by client, registrant and issue area. Pay only per result returned.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/talcoe/senate-lobbying.md
- **Developed by:** [M Usama](https://apify.com/talcoe) (community)
- **Categories:** Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

### What does Federal Lobbying Disclosures Scraper do?

It returns federal lobbying disclosure filings straight from the Senate's Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) database: filing type (registration, quarterly report, amendment, termination), client and registrant names and locations, income and expenses, the issue areas lobbied on, the lobbyists named on the filing, the government entities lobbied, and a link to the original filing document. Filter by client, registrant and issue area so you only pay for the filings you actually want. Useful for tracking who is lobbying for or against a company or industry, building lead lists of active lobbying firms, and monitoring new registrations and reports as they are posted.

### Data source

The Senate LDA publishes a public, unauthenticated JSON API at `https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/` (`lda.senate.gov` redirects here); the Actor reads that API directly instead of scraping the HTML search UI, requesting the JSON representation via an `Accept: application/json` header since the API defaults to an HTML browsable view otherwise. Filings are posted continuously as registrants and lobbyists submit them.

### Why use it?

- Competitive and market intelligence: see which companies are lobbying on an issue and how much they spend.
- Lead generation: find lobbying firms and registrants active in a given issue area to pitch related services to.
- Compliance monitoring: track new registrations, amendments and terminations for a client or registrant you follow.
- Replaces manually searching lda.gov's filing search UI one filing at a time.

### How to use it

1. Open the Actor and set the filters (client name, registrant name, issue area, filing year).
2. Click Start. Download results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the API.
3. Add a Schedule and an Integration (Slack, Google Sheets, webhook) to get newly posted filings automatically.

### Input

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `clientName` | Partial, case insensitive match against the client (the company or organization being lobbied for). Blank means any client. |
| `registrantName` | Partial, case insensitive match against the registrant (the lobbying firm or in house lobbyist filing the disclosure). Blank means any registrant. |
| `issueArea` | Only return filings that report lobbying activity on this issue area (one of the LDA's fixed codes, e.g. Insurance, Health Issues, Taxation). Blank means any issue. |
| `filingYear` | Only return filings for this year. The Senate LDA has electronic records back to 1999. |
| `maxResults` | Hard stop for the run. You are billed per result, so this caps the cost. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Not required: the Senate LDA API is a public, unauthenticated JSON API. |

Example input:

```json
{
    "clientName": "amazon",
    "registrantName": "",
    "issueArea": "TAX",
    "filingYear": 2025,
    "maxResults": 60
}
```

### Output

Every record has the same shape:

```json
{
    "id": "08899aa3-37d6-4111-9474-cf576203a9ae",
    "filingType": "4th Quarter - Report",
    "clientName": "AMAZON CORPORATE LLC",
    "registrantName": "FEDERAL STREET STRATEGIES, LLC",
    "filingYear": 2025,
    "filingPeriod": "4th Quarter (Oct 1 - Dec 31)",
    "income": 60000,
    "expenses": null,
    "issueAreas": ["Consumer Issues/Safety/Products", "Labor Issues/Antitrust/Workplace", "Taxation/Internal Revenue Code"],
    "lobbyists": ["STACEY LEAVANDOSKY", "PAUL BRATHWAITE", "VEN NERALLA"],
    "governmentEntities": ["HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES", "SENATE"],
    "postedDate": "2026-01-21T03:35:42.000Z",
    "clientState": "DC",
    "clientCountry": "US",
    "registrantState": "DC",
    "registrantCountry": "US",
    "documentUrl": "https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/08899aa3-37d6-4111-9474-cf576203a9ae/print/",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-09-25T08:30:24.572Z"
}
```

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `id` | Stable filing UUID, safe for deduplication between runs |
| `filingType` / `filingPeriod` | Registration, quarterly report, amendment or termination, and which quarter it covers |
| `clientName` / `clientState` / `clientCountry` | The organization being lobbied for |
| `registrantName` / `registrantState` / `registrantCountry` | The lobbying firm or in house lobbyist filing the disclosure |
| `income` / `expenses` | Dollar amounts reported, in whichever field the filer used (registrants report one or the other, not both) |
| `issueAreas` | LDA issue area codes reported on the filing, expanded to display names |
| `lobbyists` | Individual lobbyists named on the filing |
| `governmentEntities` | Government bodies lobbied (House, Senate, specific agencies) |
| `postedDate` | When the filing was posted to lda.gov, ISO format |
| `documentUrl` | Link to the original filing document on lda.gov |

### Pricing

Pay per event: a small fee when a run starts, then a fixed price per result returned. You only pay for filings that pass your filters. Set `maxResults` to cap any run.

### Limitations

- Covers filings only; the LDA also publishes separate contribution reports, which this Actor does not return.
- `income` and `expenses` are as reported by the filer: most filings populate only one of the two, and some report neither.
- Filing dates reflect when a filer posted the disclosure, which can lag the activity it reports by up to 45 days under the law.

### FAQ

**Is this legal?** The Actor reads the Senate LDA's public API, which the government publishes specifically for programmatic access to lobbying disclosures, and stores only the disclosure data published for that purpose. You are responsible for how you use the data.

**Something is missing or broken?** Open an issue in the Issues tab; response time is usually under a day.

# Actor input Schema

## `clientName` (type: `string`):

Partial, case insensitive match against the client (the company or organization being lobbied for). Leave blank for any client.

## `registrantName` (type: `string`):

Partial, case insensitive match against the registrant (the lobbying firm or in house lobbyist filing the disclosure). Leave blank for any registrant.

## `issueArea` (type: `string`):

Only return filings that report lobbying activity on this issue area. Leave as Any issue for no filter.

## `filingYear` (type: `integer`):

Only return filings for this year. The Senate LDA started keeping electronic records in 1999.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Hard stop for the run. You are billed per result, so this caps the cost.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Not required for this Actor: the Senate LDA API is a public, unauthenticated JSON API.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "clientName": "",
  "registrantName": "",
  "issueArea": "",
  "filingYear": 2026,
  "maxResults": 60,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "clientName": "",
    "registrantName": "",
    "issueArea": "",
    "filingYear": 2026,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("talcoe/senate-lobbying").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "clientName": "",
    "registrantName": "",
    "issueArea": "",
    "filingYear": 2026,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("talcoe/senate-lobbying").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "clientName": "",
  "registrantName": "",
  "issueArea": "",
  "filingYear": 2026,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call talcoe/senate-lobbying --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,talcoe/senate-lobbying"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/V1VbMcSg0bRbTNO5x/builds/hssXNmwA3DaKsxExe/openapi.json