Amazon Flexes Its Washington Muscles

The tech giant now spends more money on lobbying than all but one of its peers

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After building out a powerful influence machine in Washington over the last few years, Amazon is going on the attack.

The Seattle-based company is pushing aside trade groups it doesn’t like and creating ones it does. It’s dispatching senior executives to woo antitrust enforcers. And it’s poaching senior staff from government agencies and congressional offices.

Federal records show that Amazon.com Inc. lobbied more government entities than any other tech company in 2018 and sought to exert its influence over more issues than any of its tech peers except Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Last year, Amazon spent $14.2 million on lobbying, a record for the company, up from its previous high of $12.8 million in 2017. The $77 million that the nine tech companies included in the chart below spent in 2018 to lobby Washington looks minuscule next to the $280 million spent by pharmaceutical and health-care products companies. Tech has, however, pulled ahead of the $64 million that commercial banks spent—and Amazon in particular has a cachet that allows it to punch above its weight at times. Of the nine, only the $21 million Google spent on lobbying beat Amazon’s total. Since 2012, Amazon has ramped up spending by more than 460 percent—much faster than its rivals.

Amazon is also showing a new level of assertiveness in advancing its corporate interests, though largely out of the public eye. The company’s recent high- profile imbroglios, which include the abrupt abandonment of a deal for a new headquarters in New York City and founder and Chief Executive Officer JeffBezos’ blackmail allegations against the National Enquirer, belie the extent and sophistication of the company’s behind-the-scenes efforts.