A Look at the Leaders in Tech Firm Political Lobbying

Google remains undisputed leader of tech firm political lobbying with $3.65 million in donations | Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

Google trimmed its 2015 third-quarter federal lobbying spending 7 percent to $3.65 million from $3.94 million in the comparable 2014 period, but still led lobbying expenditures among 16 technology and communications companies tracked by Consumer Watchdog.

Lobbying disclosure reports filed Tuesday with the Clerk of the House of Representatives showed that in addition to Google eight other companies tracked by the nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest group trimmed their spending.

Oracle, however, doubled down, increasing its lobbying expenditures 101 percent to a record $2.48 million in the third quarter of 2015, up from $1.20 million in 2014, the disclosure records showed.

Amazon posted a substantial gain as well, increasing its lobbying spending 71 percent to $2.02 million in the third quarter of 2015. It had spent $1.18 million on lobbying in the third quarter of 2014.

“Even with cutbacks by some firms the lobbying figures once again demonstrate how our democracy has been hijacked by corporate interests,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project director. “Washington is all about the money.”

Facebook spent $2.59 million in the third quarter of 2015, an increase of 6 percent compared to $2.45 million in 2014. It was a record for Facebook’s third-quarter spending, but below the social network’s all-time high of $2.78 million in the first quarter of 2014.

Microsoft, which used to lead the tech lobbying expenditures, spent $1.89 million in 2015. It was an increase of 14 percent compared $1.66 million in the third quarter of 2014.

Here are the 2015 third-quarter lobbying amounts for the five other tech firms:

• Apple spent $980,000, a 3 percent decrease from $1.01 million in 2014.
• Cisco Systems spent $710,000, a 3 percent decrease from $730,00 in 2014.
• IBM spent $860,000, a 1 percent increase from $850,000 in 2014.
• Intel spent $1.06 million, a 31 percent increase from $810,000 in 2014.
• Yahoo spent $690,000, a 5 percent decrease from $730,000 in 2014.

Here are 2015 third-quarter lobbying expenditures for four telecommunications companies:

• AT&T spent $2.90 million, a 16 percent decrease from $3.47 million in 2014.
• Sprint spent $713,843, a 1 percent increase from $706,343 in 2014.
• T-Mobile spent $1.37 million, a 28 percent decrease from $1.91 million in 2014.
• Verizon spent $2.48 million, a 15 percent decrease from $2.91 million in 2014.

Here are 2015 third-quarter lobbying expenditures for two cable companies:

• Comcast spent $3.27 million, a 23 percent decrease from $4.23 million in 2014.
• Time Warner Cable spent $1.65 million, an 8 percent decrease from $1.80 million, in 2014.

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