The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has dramatically increased its lobbying expenditures (and influence) in Washington in the wake of the bursting of the housing bubble. The first chart shows the lobbying expenditures of the NAR over the past five quarters. As you can see the NAR has greatly ramped up its lobbying expenditures in the past couple of quarters. The Q1′09 expenditures represent an increase of more than 82% over Q1′08 expenditures. In the past two quarters the NAR has spent $12.25 million on lobbying in Washington.
The purpose of the next two charts is to give some perspective on the amount of money the NAR is spending on lobbying. The second chart shows how much the NAR spent per business day on lobbying during each of the past five quarters. During the past couple of quarters on average the NAR has spent roughly $100,000 per business day on lobbying expenditures. This is a mind numbing number.
The third chart shows how much the NAR spent per member of Congress (the U.S. Congress has 535 voting members) during each of the past five quarters. Since the beginning of 2008, the NAR has spent almost $43,000 per member of Congress on lobbying. The NAR has spent some of this money lobbying other government agencies and officials, however, this chart gives an interesting perspective on just how much money the NAR is throwing around Washington.
I would assume the NAR would justify their expenditures by saying it was (is) necessary to help educate public officals on the complex issues facing the nation during the housing crisis. This is a ridiculous argument. Having educational meetings with policy makers is important, but it doesn’t need to be an expensive process. How do I know this? Because I was a corporate lobbyist in Washington years ago. I had many meetings on Capitol Hill, and it just doesn’t cost much. How much does it cost to meet over a cup of coffee and exchange some ideas? My expenses were always small (a few bucks). As a former lobbyist it blows my mind to think of spending $100,000 every business day on expenses. It would be work just trying to spend the money.
As far as having the NAR educating our public officals, that scares me too. The forth chart (below) shows what the NAR was saying about housing during the past few years as the housing market was collapsing. I took the quotes directly from the titles of NAR press releases. Is this the organization that we want educating our public officals on how to fix the housing crisis?
I have no problem with lobbying. I think it serves an important part in the American political process. The problem is the excessive amounts of money that have become commonplace in Washington lobbying circles. Excessive levels of lobbying expenditures serve to distort politics and not to advance the political process. On a positive note the disclosure and reporting on lobbying has become better. The next step is to put controls in place on lobbying expenditures.
Note: The lobbying expenditures covered in this report are from U.S. Congress disclosures (and cover just the federal government). It should be noted that there are many state and local realtor associations in the U.S. that also lobby state and local officals. Those expenditures are not included in this report.
Data Source:
U.S. Congress
Various National Association of Realtors Press Releases
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