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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I have a problem with lobbying. It’s pay for play all the time. Our politicians are crooks. They should have open forums where all can bring issues, not just companies and orgs with money.
Comment by Lobbying — April 30, 2009 @ 1:22 am
I wonder how much their advertising budget increased. You used to never hear NAR sponsored propaganda. Now there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t hear commercial on the raido during my commute.
Comment by RR — April 30, 2009 @ 3:50 am
I have a problem with Lobbying, Its a BRIBE, regardless of wich industry, And by members of the congress accepting that, It make no difference with any other Latin-governmet.
Senators are the Prostitutes of coorporations.
Comment by Jc — April 30, 2009 @ 7:52 am
They were trying to get their share of your money, as you are not able to spend it yourself.
All the hogs were fighting to get to the stimulus trough, which was full of resources diverted from the productive parts of the economy.
We haven’t blown enough money building houses in the desert no one is living in and that produce nothing. More! More!
We cannot rest until all productive assets are consumed.
Comment by Alan Brown — April 30, 2009 @ 5:16 pm
The NAR is finished. Everyone knows now that real estate is not an investment. How much more will it take before the SEC does their job of policing these crooks.
Comment by 3rd worlder — May 1, 2009 @ 2:19 am
I see that they are spending tons of $ but somehow I missed exactly what it is they hope to receive in return?? They already have the lowest mortgage rates in 30 years. The price of housing has dropped considerably [yet not nearly where is must be]. Oooops, I think I’ve figured it out— they want back the ’stated income’ app’s with 110% LTV for a ‘ARM Pick-a-Payment’ and a qualifying FICA of 400.
Comment by jr — May 1, 2009 @ 1:01 pm