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Political Spending

Political-Spending_iconThe U.S. Chamber of Commerce is by far the largest lobbying group in the U.S., having spent almost $1.4 billion on lobbying the federal government in the last two decades, more than three times as much as the next largest spender. One of its main functions is to essentially act as a corporate “money laundering” machine through which companies can anonymously lobby for unpopular policies without having to face the public backlash and reputational damage they might encounter if they advocated for such things openly. As Chamber President Thomas Donohue himself has said, the Chamber intends to “give [members] all the deniability they need.” The Chamber is also one of the largest undisclosed dark money elections spenders – having spent more than $150 million on congressional races alone since 2008.