{"id":217739,"date":"2025-06-23T15:35:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T01:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=217739"},"modified":"2025-06-23T15:35:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T01:35:20","slug":"data-driven-look-at-lobbying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/06\/23\/data-driven-look-at-lobbying\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is attempting to influence legislators? <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr> breaks down 2025 data"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/manoa-uhero-lobbyist-report.jpg\" alt=\"state capitol building\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-217740\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/manoa-uhero-lobbyist-report.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/manoa-uhero-lobbyist-report-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/manoa-uhero-lobbyist-report-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A new <a href=\"https:\/\/uhero.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Economic Research Organization<\/a> (<abbr>UHERO<\/abbr>) analysis of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s first full year of mandatory lobbying disclosures found that 7,188 positions were taken by 340 organizations on 1,747 bills during the 2025 legislative session, revealing which groups drove the state\u2019s policy debates&#8212;and how.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr> found:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Support overwhelmed opposition. Of 5,050 unique positions, nearly two-thirds (63&#37;) &ldquo;supported,&rdquo; 17&#37; &ldquo;opposed&rdquo; and the remainder filed comments. Lobbying in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> appears geared more toward advancing proposals than blocking them.<\/li>\n<li>A small number of organizations are disproportionately active. The typical organization weighed in on just six bills, but the three most frequent participants&#8212;the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, Plumbers and Fitters Local 675, and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Laborers\u2019 Union Local 368&#8212;each took about 170 positions.<\/li>\n<li>Some organizations focus on advancing new policies, while others work primarily to block or amend them. The Ulupono Initiative and the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Primary Care Association, each with 71 unique positions, lobbied in support over 95&#37; of the time. Healthcare organizations, social service providers and progressive advocacy groups were similarly among the most active supporters of proposed legislation. Other organizations lobby in opposition the majority of the time, indicating a preference for the status quo. These include utilities, insurance companies and vice industries (tobacco and alcohol). The first two may be overrepresented in this session, given urgent debates over policy responses to the Lahaina wildfires.<\/li>\n<li>Some organizations also filed comments every or nearly every time, which could be a strategy to influence legislation without taking a hard yes\/no stand. Examples of these more cautious organizations include private sector unions, major corporations and trade associations.<\/li>\n<li>Different sectors and interest groups show distinct patterns and levels of participation. <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr> categorized all organizations into one of 15 interest groups or economic sectors. Advocacy groups, health organizations, trade associations and private sector unions are the top 4 most active by position count, making up 39&#37; of all organizations, but a disproportionate 55&#37; of all positions. Sectors also display patterns of offense, defense and caution, supporting the organization-level interpretation above.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For the entire blog and insight into the <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiethics.my.site.com\/public\/s\/reports?report=Lobbying%20Bill%20Reporting\">Legislative\/Administrative Action Report<\/a>\u2019s limitations, <a href=\"https:\/\/uhero.hawaii.edu\/bills-backers-and-blocs-a-data-driven-look-at-lobbying-in-hawaii\/\">visit <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr>\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr>\u2019s next blog, researchers will explore the data at the bill level, highlighting contested policy areas, organizational coalitions and correlations between lobbying activity and bill progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr>UHERO<\/abbr>\u2019s analysis of 2025 lobbying disclosures reveals which groups shaped <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s legislative session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[301,197,1467,1363,1026,9,343],"class_list":["post-217739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-economics","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-social-science","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uhero","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217739"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217743,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217739\/revisions\/217743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}