Google’s lobbying shake-up signals it’s readying for Washington battle

WASHINGTON — An overhaul of Google’s lobbying operations signals it’s preparing for a new battle in Washington, tech industry

Google gave about half a dozen of its largest Washington lobbying firms the ax, the Wall Street Journal reports. The firings come amid a broader effort to modernize its federal government operations as the company’s internal staff has also undergone a shake-up — with several vacancies remaining, including its chief Washington lobbyist position.

“They probably perceive themselves as entering a new phase of conflict in Washington,” said Paul Gallant, a tech policy analyst at Cowen & Co. “They want to be positioned as well as they can for it.”

For the next 18 months, House lawmakers will be probing the tech industry’s impact on competition — setting up perhaps the greatest gauntlet yet for the lobbying arms tech companies have been amassing in Washington in recent years.

And as a result, Washington lobbying firms are racing to close high-paying contracts with the companies, The Hill’s Alex Gangitano writes.

The companies have also been trying to hire experienced Washington insiders, as well as experts who understand antitrust issues. Facebook has been seeking to take on more antitrust lawyers in recent months as calls to break up the companies mount.

Experts expect this could push the companies to even further increase their lobbying expenditures. Last year, five of the largest U.S. tech companies poured a combined $64.2 million into federal lobbying efforts, according to ethics reports. That’s a more than 10 percent increase over their record-setting 2017 spending

“When you are building a company and hiring as quickly as tech companies are, it can be hard to build out your D.C. office at the same pace you build everything else,” Avery Gardiner, a senior fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology, says.

Other companies such as General Electric, she said, had decades to build an inhouse antitrust counsel as they saw more scrutiny in Washington. Facebook has only existed for 15 years.