![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Passive-Income.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWashington, D.C.\u2019s biggest lobbying firms are posting record revenues as Americans feel the heat from falling wages, The Hill reported Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 20 largest lobbying firms in the country collectively brought in over $150 million between January and March as Congress considered spending legislation<\/a>, foreign aid bills<\/a> and new tax laws, according<\/a> to The Hill. American workers, meanwhile, saw their median inflation-adjusted wage fall from $371 in the third quarter of 2023 to $365 a week in the first quarter of 2024, according<\/a> to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The median wage as of the first quarter of 2024 is lower than it was at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, BLS data shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read: Leaked Audio Reveals New Mexico\u2019s Dem Gov Ripping Biden Admin Over Border Security<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brownstein, which was the largest<\/a> lobbying firm by revenue in the U.S. in 2023, made a record $16.2 million lobbying in the first quarter of 2024, according to The Hill. Akin Gump, the second-largest lobbying firm by revenue, also reported their highest-earning first quarter on record, bringing in $13.8 million between January and March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis year is off to a strong start with clients focused on AI, wireless communications and regulatory matters including antitrust,\u201d a press release provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation by a Brownstein spokesperson reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Large items on the legislative agenda during the first quarter of 2024 included legislation that would\u00a0force<\/a>\u00a0TikTok\u2019s Chinese parent company ByteDance to either sell the platform or face a ban in the United States, a $95 billion\u00a0foreign aid package<\/a>\u00a0and changes to tax law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read: Man Who Witnessed George Floyd\u2019s Death Wins Hefty Six-Figure Settlement From Minneapolis\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The foreign aid package, which President Joe Biden signed<\/a> into law on Wednesday, includes similar provisions that force ByteDance to either sell TikTok or face a ban, alongside billions in funds for Ukraine, Israel and America\u2019s allies in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BGR Group and Mehlman Consulting, two other major lobbying firms, reported their best quarters ever, earning $10.9 million and $7.4 million in lobbying revenue respectively, according to The Hill. One of Mehlman\u2019s clients in the first quarter was TikTok, paying the firm $80,000 between January and March, according<\/a> to lobbying disclosures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to declining wages, Americans faced slowing economic growth, rising costs and sweeping layoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. economy grew<\/a> at a rate of just 1.6% during the first quarter of 2024, well below the 2.2% growth predicted by economists. The rate of growth also represented a steep decline from the prior quarter, where the economy grew by 3.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As growth slows, inflation continues to tick upward<\/a>, increasing by 0.4% between February and March. The monthly uptick is part of a 3.5% year-over-year increase in inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Costs are rising across a number of areas for Americans, particularly housing<\/a>, drugs<\/a> and food<\/a> prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state of the economy has small business owners pessimistic about the trajectory of their enterprises, with their optimism dropping to its lowest level since 2012, according<\/a> to a survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business. This lack of optimism may be reflected<\/a> in layoff statistics, with employers cutting 90,309 employees in March, more than any other month since January 2023, according to a report from the firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany companies appear to be reverting to a \u2018do more with less\u2019 approach,\u201d Andy Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., said in the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, BGR Group and Mehlman Consulting did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Help support<\/a> the Tampa Free Press<\/a> by making any small donation by clicking here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Android Users, Click To Download The Tampa Free Press App<\/a> And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/em> Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Washington, D.C.\u2019s biggest lobbying firms are posting record revenues as Americans feel the heat from falling wages, The Hill reported Friday. The 20 largest lobbying firms in the country collectively brought in over $150 million between January and March as Congress considered spending legislation, foreign aid bills and new tax laws, according to The Hill. American workers, meanwhile, saw their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7297,"featured_media":104689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}