Northrop Grumman Spends $10.86 Million on Lobbying with 29 Revolving Door Officials

Northrop Grumman spent $10.86 million on federal lobbying in 2023, employing 36 lobbyists of whom 29—a staggering 80.6 percent—had previously worked in government positions, exemplifying the revolving door between the Pentagon, Congress, and defense contractors that enables systematic corruption of military procurement and defense policy. The company’s lobbying efforts focused on the annual defense spending bill, export control reform, foreign military sales, and defense trade policy, allowing former government officials to leverage their insider knowledge, relationships, and access to shape billions in taxpayer-funded contracts and regulatory policies in Northrop Grumman’s favor.

The company’s $10.86 million lobbying expenditure in 2023 represented a slight decrease from the $10.93 million spent in 2022, but maintained Northrop Grumman’s position as one of the defense industry’s most aggressive political influencers. During just the first three months of 2023, the company spent $4.4 million on federal lobbying, demonstrating the sustained intensity of its efforts to influence Congressional appropriations, Pentagon acquisition policies, and export regulations. The company made $1.236 million in direct campaign contributions to federal candidates during the 2023-2024 election cycle, with donation patterns overwhelmingly favoring lawmakers serving on the Armed Services and defense appropriations committees who control funding for Northrop’s major weapons programs.

The extraordinary 80.6 percent revolving door rate among Northrop Grumman’s lobbying team provides the company with unparalleled access to current government officials and insider understanding of Pentagon decision-making processes, budget priorities, and Congressional dynamics. These former government officials know exactly which officials to target, what arguments will resonate with specific committees, and how to navigate the complex acquisition bureaucracy to secure favorable contract terms, relaxed oversight, and continued funding for Northrop programs despite cost overruns and performance failures. The revolving door lobbyists trade on personal relationships built during government service, creating conflicts of interest where current officials know that lucrative lobbying positions await them if they maintain favorable relationships with defense contractors.

Analysis of campaign contribution patterns across the defense industry reveals that the five largest defense contractors strategically target Armed Services Committee members and defense appropriations subcommittee members, ensuring that the lawmakers with direct authority over defense contracts receive the most industry funding. This systematic targeting creates a captured oversight system where the very Congressional committees supposed to hold defense contractors accountable instead depend on contractor campaign contributions for reelection, creating obvious conflicts of interest that undermine genuine oversight and enable continued profiteering through cost overruns, fraud, and waste.

Northrop Grumman’s $10.86 million lobbying expenditure represents just the direct costs required to maintain a permanent influence operation in Washington. The total political investment includes campaign contributions, funding for think tanks and policy organizations that advocate for higher defense spending, support for industry associations, and the promise of future employment for government officials who protect Northrop’s interests while in office. This comprehensive influence infrastructure ensures that Northrop Grumman’s financial interests—not taxpayer value or genuine national security needs—drive decisions about which weapons systems to develop, how much to spend, and which contractors to reward with limited-competition contracts worth billions of dollars.