All posts tagged "Lobbying"

From Alphabet to X, eight of the largest tech giants spent a record of $71 million combined on U.S. political lobbying in 2025, according to a new report from Issue One, a bipartisan nonprofit working to reduce the influence of money in politics.

“Big Tech is using every tool in the toolbox to gain access and influence in Trump's Washington,” said Michael Beckel, senior research director at Issue One and report co-author.

It’s the latest example of “pay-to-play politics” under President Donald Trump, the report says — highlighting how tech, artificial intelligence (AI) and social media companies spent nearly $330,000 each day Congress was in session in 2025, and came away with a series of wins around industry regulations. ...

CHICAGO — In ballrooms, barrooms and backrooms this week, the business of big business is getting done with Democrats out of public view.

Yes, Bernie Sanders on Tuesday railed before Democratic National Convention delegates about how “millionaires and billionaires” should “not be able to buy elections.” And sure, curtailing “the corrupting influence of money in politics” is a plank in the 2024 Democratic Party platform.

But most Democrats in Chicago are ignoring the socialist senator and stepping over and around that party plank while pursuing cash that corporations and moneyed special interests are all too keen to contribute....

This article originally appeared in OpenSecrets. Sign up for their weekly newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

The Koch network’s flagship group, Americans for Prosperity, has spent two decades pouring money into influencing U.S. elections.

As the group celebrates its 20-year anniversary, its hybrid super PAC ranks third in outside spending in the 2024 cycle. ...

This article originally appeared in OpenSecrets. Sign up for their weekly newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Novo Nordisk — the pharmaceutical giant behind popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy — spent a record $3.2 million on lobbying in the first six months of 2024 as the Denmark-based company expanded its footprint in the United States.

In 2017, after two years of clinical trials, the Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s injectable weight-loss drug Ozempic strictly for adults with Type 2 diabetes. Four years later, the FDA approved Wegovy, another weight-loss drug that is not strictly for type 2 patients but contains the same active ingredient as Ozempic, semaglutide....

This article originally appeared in OpenSecrets. Sign up for their weekly newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

GEO Group, one of the world’s largest private prison companies, is ramping up its lobbying operation as lawmakers in Washington eye budget cuts to “alternatives to detention” programs.

The private prison giant spent $690,000 on federal lobbying during the first six months of 2024, more than it spent in the first half of any other year during the Biden administration, according to OpenSecrets’ analysis of lobbying disclosures filed on July 21. During former President Donald Trump’s administration, GEO Group lobbying expenditures hit a new record but then started to decline after Biden entered the White House. ...

MILWAUKEE — An open secret about national conventions: the real action is often outside the convention hall, blocks or even miles away from where a political party will formally nominate its presidential candidate.

And this week in tony restaurants, trendy bars, hotel ballrooms and entertainment venues across Milwaukee, corporate lobbyists, megadonors and conservative advocacy organizations will engage in the age-old tradition of using money to influence politics.

The more money you have, the more access you can buy....