Google, Facebook And Amazon Keep Spending A lot On Lobbying
Google trimmed its spending on lobbying in the second quarter by 13 percent to $4.62 million, according to disclosure forms filed today with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, but still significantly outspent other tech giants. Google spent $5.29 million on federal lobbying in the second quarter of 2014 and $5.1 million in the first quarter of 2015.
Both Facebook and Amazon set records in their efforts to influence policymakers during the second quarter.
Facebook spent $2.69 million in the second quarter of 2015, a record, and up 27 percent from $2.12 million in the second quarter of 2014. It topped Facebook’s first quarter spending of $2.44 million by 10 percent.
Amazon’s spending on lobbying soared 103 percent to a record $2.15 million in the second quarter of 2015 from $1.06 million in the comparable 2014 period.
Microsoft, which used to lead tech companies in the amount spent on lobbying, trimmed its expenditures again. It spent $2.24 million in the second quarter of 2015 compared to $2.34 million in the same period of 2014, a 4 percent decrease.
Here is a link to the Clerk of the House’s Lobbying Disclosure database: http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/ldsearch.aspx
Below you see the second quarter lobbying amounts for six other tech firms:
- Apple spent $1.23 million, in 2015 a 42 percent increase from $840,000 in 2014.
- Cisco spent $530,00 in 2015, a 26 percent decrease from $720,000 in 2014.
- IBM spent $1.81 million in 2015, a 7 percent increase from $1.69 million in 2014.
- Intel spent $1.29 million in 2015, a 66 percent increase from $779,000 in 2014.
- Oracle spent $1.73 million in 2015, an 18 percent increase from $1.46 million in 2014.
- Yahoo spent $730,000 in 2015 a 5 percent decrease from $770,000 in 2014.
Here are second quarter lobbying expenditures for four telecommunications companies:
- AT&T spent $4.10 million in 2015, a 7 percent increase from $3.82 million in 2014.
- Sprint spent $747,696 in 2025, a 3 percent increase from $728,365 in 2014.
- T-Mobile spent $1.62 million in 2015, a 19 percent increase from $1.36 million in 2014.
- Verizon spent $3.08 million in 2015, an 11 percent decrease from $3.47 million in 2014.
Here are lobbying expenditures for two cable companies:
- Comcast spent $3.8 million in 2015, a 15 percent decrease from $4.45 million in 2014.
- Time Warner Cable spent $1.60 million in 2015, a 16 percent decrease from $1.90 million in 2014.