Steve Jobs shunned trips to Washington, D.C., during his tenure as Apple CEO, but Tim Cook has been a frequent visitor to Capitol Hill to personally amp up Apple’s lobbying efforts, which have more than doubled since 2009.
A new report from OpenSecrets today revealed that Apple lobbied the White House, Congress and 13 departments and agencies including the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission in 2014. In 2009, Apple lobbied only Congress and six agencies and only spent $1.5 million compared to the nearly $3 million it spent from January to October 2014.
Bloomberg highlighted Cooks efforts to increase Apple’s presence in Washington since taking the reins at Apple. In 2013, Cook hired Amber Cottle, former chief of staff for the Senate Finance Committee, to head Apple’s lobbying office. Most of Apple’s lobbying efforts last year focused on taxes, telecommunications, copyright and patent law, and information technology.
Spending on lobbying was actually down in 2014 compared to the all-time high of $3,370,000 the company spent on lobbying expenditures in 2013. Apple’s lobbying expenses are also fairly insignificant compared to the $13.7 million Google spent and the $6 million Microsoft blew in 2014.
Apple has a total of 32 lobbyists but mostly uses an internal team that spent a total of $2,920,000 in 2014. Other top lobbying firms hired by Apple include Capitol Tax Partners, Franklin Square Group and the Glover Park Group.
Source: OpenSecrets
