Overall,

were hired to lobby on alcohol and drug abuse issues for the past two years. Trump’s efforts to take on the pharmaceutical companies stalled amid

and

from the industry.

A prime initiative of the Trump administration has been promoting school choice as a way to improve educational opportunities. Secretary of Education

has made school choice, especially the option of going to charter, religious or magnet schools,

.

DeVos advocated for a federal tax credit program that would give

in federal tax credits to anyone who gives money to support scholarships that would allow children to go to private schools, including religious schools.

The

increased its lobbying expenditures from about $190,000 in 2018 to over $350,000 in 2019. The group lobbied the Department of Education, the president’s office and the House in 2019.

Last week Trump signed the

, which will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The trade deal drove a

to lobby on the issue of trade last year. The trade deal was strongly supported by the

, the organization that spent the most

in 2019, at $77.2 million.

The United Kingdom officially left the European Union last week, and that will give Trump an opportunity to create a new trade deal with the U.K. The trade deal may not be as easy to achieve as politicians on both sides of the Atlantic had proclaimed. The farm industry and the pharmaceutical industry will be two contentious issues in the

. The U.K. has vowed to not negotiate on those issues, but the Trump administration wants to secure a deal that would see U.S. farmers have greater access to the British market.

Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic advisor, expects the president will briefly mention his desire to negotiate trade deals with the U.K. and European Union, he told

. Trump condemned the EU in a recently

with some of his top mega-donors.

The pharmaceuticals/health industry was the largest lobbying industry last year. Agribusiness is another powerful industry, spending $136.9 million in 2019 on lobbying. Both industries will be determined to lobby the Trump administration to get beneficial terms in the trade deal.

In 2018, Trump increased tariffs on imported solar panels, steel and aluminum. In the meantime, he also engaged in a trade war with China that led to a trade deal that Trump considers another political victory.

China is one of the

involved in foreign lobbying in the U.S., spending nearly $50 million to influence U.S. policy. In 2018, the country spent nearly

.

Medicare and Medicaid were among the

lobbied on during the past two years. In 2018, almost 2,000

worked on behalf of groups such as

,

and others. In 2019, the number of lobbyists ticked up just past 2,000.

The number of insured Americans is decreasing, despite the relatively strong economy. Over the course of his presidency, Trump’s administration

to weaken the Affordable Care Act by eliminating penalties for not having insurance, reducing enrollment outreach and promoting more short-term insurance plans. This came after a failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Now, congressional Republicans and the Trump administration aim to have the law

by the Supreme Court.

The administration also introduced work requirements for Medicaid, which have

in Arkansas and other states that found the measure to be too limiting.

In 2018, the insurance sector was the

. In total, the industry, which is

, spent $158 million that year. The number dipped slightly in 2019 when the industry spent about

.

Over

of border walls have been constructed, rebuilt or enhanced along the nearly 2,000 mile-long U.S.-Mexico border as of mid-January. Trump plans to have 450 miles of the border wall built by the end of 2020, which is about 23 percent of the border with Mexico.

There were 1,396 lobbyists who lobbied on immigration issues in 2019, a slight decrease from 2018, and immigration was the 17th most lobbied issue. The CEO of a

that won a $400 million contract to construct part of the border wall,

went on Fox News to

, and he was able to get Sen.

(D-N.D.) to directly lobby Trump. The company also spent $75,000 on lobbying in 2018.