"Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student lender, spent $640,000 lobbying in the second quarter for government help to shore up the troubled student loan market and on legislation related to other issues affecting the industry," the Associated Press reports. "The company, formally called SLM Corp., lobbied on access to capital for student lenders and a variety of legislation touching on student lending, education spending and banking. Besides Congress, Reston, Va.-based Sallie Mae also lobbied the Education Department, White House, Treasury Department and Federal Reserve, according to the report for the April-June quarter filed July 18 with the House clerk's office."