DC health lobbyists collected $3.5 billion in 2009

In the midst of the recession, the effort to enact national health care legislation has been a boon to one part of the U.S. economy: Washington lawyers and lobbyists.

A report from the non-partisan, nonprofit Center for Public Integrity shows that more than 1,750 companies and other groups spent nearly $3.5 billion (yes that's B for Billion) on some 4,500 D.C. lobbyists in 2009.

And with the renewed push for health care legislation by the Obama Administration heading into Thursday's bipartisan summit, the money spent to influence the health care legislation on all sides of the spectrum – political, business, union, and advocacy –
s likely to add millions, or even billions, more to the total spending.