lobbyist

noun

lob·​by·​ist ˈlä-bē-ist 

plural lobbyists

: one who conducts activities aimed at influencing or swaying public officials and especially members of a legislative body on legislation : a person engaged in lobbying public officials

The new rule says that if you were a registered lobbyist in the past two years, you can't work for the administration on any issue you touched. After you leave government, you can't lobby the administration at all.

—Jacob Weisberg

Because so many lobbyists have past experience on Capitol Hill, they usually have personal ties both to members of congress and to their key staffers, who vet and prioritize the earmark requests.

—Ken Silverstein

Examples of lobbyist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Amid a budget shortfall, lobbyists push for a multibillion-dollar climate bond. —Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2024

The city attorney said lobbyists who are unpaid should also be required to report meetings with policymakers. —Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 June 2024

Prominent Missouri lobbyist Steve Tilley, a former Missouri House speaker, lobbies for HHS with the General Assembly along with two other lobbyists. —Jonathan Shorman, Kansas City Star, 20 May 2024

According to a joint investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail and ProPublica, more than a million dollars of the inaugural fund—much of which came from statehouse lobbyists—went to Justice’s Greenbrier Hotel Corporation. —Dan Kaufman, The New Yorker, 9 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1842, in the meaning defined above