Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the Senate won't vote on a bill to overhaul the health-care system until September — after the August break.

But there won't be much of a vacation for the health-care lobbyists. Their work does not stop.

In three months — April, May and June — America's biggest drug makers spent $40 million lobbying Congress on health care. That's the conclusion of an analysis of the most recent lobbying disclosure reports by NPR's Dollar Politics team, Andrea Seabrook and Peter Overby.

The Seabrook/Overby team points out that those three months were critical in the drafting of the current health care proposals floating around Capitol Hill. And it's more than just the amount of cash — it's what that money bought: people. Phrma alone hired 45 separate D.C. lobbying firms to represent it in those months. Most of the companies that belong to Phrma were also running their own lobbying operations as well, and the biggest ones hired additional dozens of DC firms. It appears there was a critical mass of lobbyists — all on the side of the brand-name prescription drug companies — on Capitol Hill at the same time.

You can read more about Andrea and Peter's report — and hear their piece that airs tonight on All Things Considered — here.

And here's a great graphic, showing Phrma's lobbying firms.