First-Quarter Lobbying Expenditures: Google, AT&T, Comcast and Comcast Remain Top Spenders
Google's lobbying expenditures in the first quarter of this year topped $5 million, as the Internet giant sought to influence federal policymakers on issues including online privacy, competition and online advertising.
Google increased its 2018 first-quarter federal lobbying by a 42.6 percent, spending $5.02 million compared to $3.52 million spent in the comparable 2017 period.
According tp mandatory disclosure reports filed Friday with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, Comcast and AT&T trailed closely behind Google in their lobbying expenditures, with Comcast spending $4.24 million in the first quarter of 2018, a 14 percent increase from the $3.72 million spent in the first quarter of 2017, and AT&T spending $4.12 million.
Cisco Systems and Apple had the biggest percentage increases in their lobbying expenditures in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the first quarter of 2017. Cisco Systems increased its lobbying expenditures by almost 90 percent, from $390,000 to $740,000. Apple increased its spending by 52.3 percent, moving from spending $1.4 million in the first quarter of 2017 to $2.14 million in the first quarter of 2018.
Amazon spending soared 16.6 percent to $3.38 million in 2018 from $2.9 million in 2017.
Facebook spent $3.3 million in the first quarter of 2018, a 2.8 percent increase from $3.21 million in the first quarter of 2017. The social networking company spent $2.78 million in the first quarter of 2016.
Microsoft remained at the $2.3 million level in 2018, the same as it was in the first quarter of 2017. That compares with $2.02 million in the first quarter of 2016.