As the construction industry sheds thousands of jobs and retail stores shutter across the country, one industry is still booming bigger than ever: Lobbying.

Washington's influence-peddlers are on track to rake in close to $4 billion this year, according to an analysis of new lobbyist filings by Congressional Quarterly.

That's about $1 billion more than they reported for 2007.  But experts say the boost may be due to tightened reporting requirements from last year’s ethics reform law.

It was widely believed that in years past lobbyists, per the old rules, reported merely the money they made for their interactions with lawmakers' offices.  They were not required to report fees they billed clients for monitoring legislation, handling public relations or other tasks.

But new, tough penalties for noncompliance are pushing many lobbyists to report fees they hadn’t in the past, to avoid any scrutiny, experts told CQ.

Still, spending on lobbying is thought to be increasing this year, as it has every year since records were first kept in 1998.