BUSINESS/COMMERCE/LOBBYING/TAXES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Lobbying by U.S. business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable surged in the last three months of 2017 as lawmakers negotiated and finalized legislation that deeply cut the taxes companies pay.
The amount spent on lobbying by the Business Roundtable, a group of chief executive officers at the largest U.S. companies, nearly quadrupled to $17.35 million in the fourth quarter from $4.53 million in the third quarter, according to lobbyist disclosures published on Monday [1-22-18].
U.S. President Donald Trump signed the massive tax overhaul into law in December, slashing the corporate rate to 21 percent from 35 percent.
Lobbying expenditures by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the most powerful business group in Washington, jumped to $16.83 million in the last three months of 2017 from $13.12 million from July through September…
Spending on lobbyists by the manufacturers group rose to $2.4 million from $1.3 million, quarter over quarter.
More than half of the registered lobbyists in Washington worked on tax issues in 2017, according to a report from the advocacy group Public Citizen published last year, as lawmakers in Washington scrambled to conclude a year-long effort to pass a tax reform bill before Christmas.”
-Reuters Staff, “U.S. business group lobbying surged as tax reform took shape,” Reuters, Jan. 22, 2018 07:05pm