Money talks in Washington, D.C., and technology giants keep spreading around the cash as it lobbies for everything from tax breaks to more business. AT&T stepped up its lobbying, for example, as it continues to try to win approval for its DirecTV deal. But the communications giant has plenty of company when it comes to investing in D.C.

Consumer Watchdog in a report out Monday notes that AT&T upped its lobbying in the second quarter to $4.10 million, an increase of 7 percent from a year ago.

Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon joined in as did Comcast and Time Warner Cable, but some spending did decline as the Comcast-TWC deal blew up.

The numbers:

  • Sprint spent $747,696 in 2025, a 3 percent increase from $728,365 in 2014.
  • T-Mobile spent $1.62 million in 2015, a 19 percent increase from $1.36 million in 2014.
  • Verizon spent $3.08 million in 2015, an 11 percent decrease from $3.47 million in 2014.
  • Comcast spent $3.8 million in 2015, a 15 percent decrease from $4.45 million in 2014.
  • Time Warner Cable spent $1.60 million in 2015, a 16 percent decrease from $1.90 million in 2014

The big spender for lobbying remains Google, although its dollars dropped 13 percent to $4.62 million, according to a disclosure report. The Internet collosus spent $5.1 million in the first quarter.

However, both Facebook and Amazon stepped up their spending to record levels, according to the consumer group.

“The massive amounts these companies are spending demonstrates how policymaking is now about who has the big bucks rather than who has the big ideas,” said John M. Simpson, the Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project director.

Facebook invested $2.69 million in the second quarter, up 27 percent from a year ago and up 10 percent from the first three months of the year.

Amazon’s lobbying grew a whopping 103 percent to $2.15 million.

Why? Perhaps this has to do with Amazon’s efforts to get the FAA to go along with drone deliveries.

Consumer Watchdog did note that Microsoft cut lobbying to $2.24 million, down 4 percent.

What about Apple, IBM, Cisco and others?

  • Apple spent $1.23 million, in 2015 a 42 percent increase from $840,000 in 2014.
  • Cisco spent $530,00 in 2015, a 26 percent decrease from $720,000 in 2014.
  • IBM spent $1.81 million in 2015, a 7 percent increase from $1.69 million in 2014.
  • Intel spent $1.29 million in 2015, a 66 percent increase from $779,000 in 2014.
  • Oracle spent $1.73 million in 2015, an 18 percent increase from $1.46 million in 2014.
  • Yahoo spent $730,000 in 2015 a 5 percent decrease from $770,000 in 2014.

To learn more, see the Clerk of the House’s Lobbying Disclosure database: http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/ldsearch.aspx