Congress and Cabinet departments aren’t the only government entities receiving the attention of lobbyists, according to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity.

[IMGCAP(1)] Lobbyists and their clients have made numerous stops at “watchdog” agencies in the past six years, including the Government Accountability Office, the Federal Election Commission and the Office of Government Ethics, the report found.

The center’s report, written by researcher Elizabeth Brown, was based on lobbying disclosure forms. “When looking at these forms, you see that when someone’s lobbying on legislation, they lobby on every part of the process,” Brown said in an interview. “I don’t think it’s necessarily negative, we’re just saying that it does happen.”

— Kate Ackley