The Newspaper Association of America, which represents daily newspaper publishers, spent some $250,000 lobbying public officials in the first quarter of 2010 on the proposed federal shield law, according to Associated Press.

“That's down from the $290,000 that the group spent in the same quarter a year earlier and the $440,000 spent in the last quarter of 2009, according to Congressional disclosure forms,” AP reports. “The group, which represents nearly 2,000 newspapers in the U.S., lobbied the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on a proposed measure called the Free Flow of Information Act. The law would give journalists some protection from having to reveal confidential sources in court, a step that media organizations argue would encourage whistle blowers to help expose corruption.”