Well, if nothing else, it produces profits... and profits pay for lobbyists.

At least in the Washington understanding, an "industry" is any profit-seeking entity or association which has lobbyists representing its interests. (What would you say are the "products" of the hedge-fund "industry"?)

I suppose you could call this a special-interest group instead, but it's a little pedantic.

Yes, it produces profits which indeed can pay for advocacy and also has jobs and where there are jobs there are congresspeople with people who might lose jobs in their district and therefore a potential wrench in any policy change.

Edit for data to paint a clearer picture: The co I know best in this space is Elsevier which according to their Wikipedia has more than 8,000 employees. I don't know where they're distributed (it's a Dutch co) but if you represent a certain district or consituency and all of a sudden your area might lose thousands of jobs, you listen, even if you don't particularly like that industry.

Unless an alternative to the current publishing system comes, the new grants will need to add a cost to publish any papers that come out of the study.