A man walks past the logo of Microsoft at the CeBIT trade fair in Hanover. NIGEL TREBLIN/AFP/Getty Images
Household-name tech companies in the U.S. increased their lobbying spending by an average of nearly 16% in 2013. Consumer Watchdog listed the top spenders who shelled out for Washington influence last year, as data was made available from the Clerk of the House’s Lobbying Disclosure database. Here are some of the most well-known brands and their financial expenditures:
AT&T spent $15.94 million — an 8.8% decrease from 2012.
Google spent $14.06 million in a 14.7% decrease from 2012.
Verizon spent $13.44 million — a 10.5% decrease from 2012.
Microsoft spent $10.49 million — a nearly 30% increase from 2012.
IBM spent 7.06 million — a 45.6% increase.
Facebook spent $6.43 million — a 61.2% increase.
Oracle spent $5.99 million — a 4% increase.
Intel spent $4.39 million — an 18.2% increase.
Amazon spent $3.46 million — a 38.3% increase.
Apple spent $3.37 million — a 71.7% increase.
Other names include Cisco, Sprint, and Yahoo — all of whom contributed to the millions spent on lobbying last year in efforts to inject their brands into political influence. Among the issues in government most important to tech companies lie immigration (so they can better attract foreign computer engineering talent) and patent policies (to mitigate the vast expenses of their patent litigation costs).
