Although under intense financial strain in recent months, American corporations continue to spend heavily on lobbying and campaign contributions to influence government policy, it was reported on Friday.
While appealing for government help, Wall Street corporations have spent millions lobbying Congress, some of them ranking among this year's biggest campaign donors, the Los Angeles Times said.
"Some members of Congress are increasingly unsettled that companies are taking in vast amounts of federal money with one hand to offset financial losses caused in part by lax government oversight -- and then paying money out to lobbyists and political campaigns with the other hand to fight new regulations aimed at averting similar problems," the paper said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the strongest voice in Washington for the business community, spent 30 million dollars on lobbying in the third quarter of this year, more than twice as much as it spent for the same purpose in the previous quarter, the paper said.
The spending is part of the most aggressive election-year effort the chamber has ever made, the paper quoted a spokesman for the organization as saying.
The chamber has for years led other business groups in lobbying and campaign spending, mixing the two seamlessly, said the paper.
This month nearly two dozen chamber lobbyists blanketed Capitol Hill, leading a business coalition that argued for swift passage of a financial rescue measure, according to the paper.
"Among other things, the chamber opposed any amendments that would make it easier to file lawsuits against banks and other firms receiving federal aid through the rescue package," the paper said.
"To maintain its influence after the election, the chamber plans to deploy nearly 1,000 organizers in battleground states this weekend, a larger grass-roots effort than has been made before on behalf of 'pro-business' candidates," said the paper.
The chamber's lobbying and campaign expenditures come from corporate contributions and from pro-business philanthropies, including some connected to American International Group Inc., the multinational insurer that recently received billions of dollars in federal funds to keep it from going under, said the paper.
The chamber gives most of its contributions to Republicans, said the paper.
Source:Xinhua
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