The company plans to build a casino in the Catskills with the St. Regis Mohawk tribe and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying the State Legislature in recent years.

When she left the Hill three years ago, she quickly became K Street's queen of earmarks, as those provisions are known, landing tens of millions of federal dollars lobbying for her clients.

Mr. Trump has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying against Indian casinos in New York, which might siphon patrons from his three casinos in Atlantic City.

The United States Chamber of Commerce, for example, has spent millions of dollars lobbying for changes to the civil justice system, including a bill that would affect how class-action lawsuits can be brought against companies.

Both sides of the controversy have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for or against passage.

The company has already spent tens of millions of dollars advertising and lobbying against the plan, and was surprised when Mrs. Whitman said that the federal government was sticking with the Clinton plan.

Technology companies promoting in-home lottery sales spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying against the bill.

Coal companies have spent millions of dollars lobbying on the issue, and have marshaled allies in organized labor, the Air Force and fuel-burning industries like the airlines.

The feared trauma is such that magazine publishers have been cruising the halls of Congress for the last five months, spending millions of dollars lobbying for relief.

The banking industry has spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying for the measure.