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Article snippet: Legislation on health care and spending helped K Street firms rack up contracts in 2019, in what was a busy year for the influence world. The year opened with the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and closed with House Democrats impeaching boom going strong. 622 clients hired lobbyists to work on the House version of the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act of 2020, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the most on any legislation this year. The totals are based on information from disclosure forms, where lobbyists detail “specific lobbying issues” they were hired to work on, and cover spending from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, the first three quarters of the year. Trump signed a massive $1.4 trillion bipartisan spending package last week to avoid a shutdown, capping a flurry of work at the end of the year. Large appropriations bills typically spur lobbying contracts and this year was no exception. The health and education bill saw General Dynamics file eight lobbying disclosures on the legislation and Harvard University, Entergy Corp., National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Planned Parenthood, Takeda Pharmaceutical and Tulane University each had six. The focus on health care came amid broader bipartisan efforts to tackle high drug costs and the issue of surprise medical billing, and as 2020 Democratic contenders spared over ambitious "Medicare for All" proposals. Despite the push to rein in medical... Link to the full article to read more