by Tom Gallagher
Over at Roll Call is an interesting article on the amount of money religious groups spend on lobbying, including the U.S. bishops conference, which spent more than $26 million in 2009.
Also among the top spenders are organizations fighting for or against abortion rights and groups that endorse traditional cultural values, according to the report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The report examined direct lobbying to influence legislation and issue-oriented public policy work, offering the first detailed analysis of religious advocacy in two decades.
... The other top spenders in 2008 and 2009, based on the most recently available data, included the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which spent $26.7 million on advocacy in 2009.
