Amazon's DC lobbying efforts have increased sharply, says report
Amazon is also reportedly pushing for more government agencies to use its cloud services.
Jeff Bezos' Amazon has sharply increased lobbying efforts in recent years.
Jeff Bezos keeps a close eye on Washington. Amazon lobbied more government entities and attempted to influence more issues in 2018 than any other tech company except Alphabet's Google , according to a Bloomberg report Thursday.
The e-commerce giant in 2018 spent over $14 million, a company record, on a variety of issues, mostly in areas like taxes and information technology. Amazon also tried to influence issues such as defense, consumer product safety, immigration and government issues, according to federal records collected by Open Secrets, a bipartisan research organization.
Google, Facebook and Amazon together spent more than $65 million last year to influence Capitol Hill. Since 2014, Amazon's spending has nearly tripled, according to federal records. Google spent over $21 million on lobbying last year.
On top of lobbying, the Seattle-based company is trying to persuade federal agencies to use its cloud computing services, according to Bloomberg. Amazon also reportedly wants to support a planned, government-wide e-commerce site for official purchases of everything from office supplies to furniture, which is said to be a $50 billion market.
Amazon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon's presence in DC will likely grow as the company moves forward with its HQ2 plans in Arlington, Virginia, a 25,000-employee site that'll be right next door. We'll see how that affects tensions between Bezos and President Donald Trump, who's widely seen as targeting Amazon because the CEO also owns The Washington Post. Trump has criticized the newspaper's coverage of him.