General Motors reduced its lobbying spending in the second quarter by only 1.4% compared to the first quarter, even though the second quarter saw the company go bankrupt, be taken over by the government, and announce it was cancelling its outside lobbying contracts.
In April, May, and June, GM spent $2,760,000 on lobbying according to its Q2 lobbying filing, compared to $2,800,000 in the first quarter. A GM spokesman pointed out to me that the first quarter number already reflects some downsizing — the company terminated four lobbying accounts at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. GM terminated the rest of its contracts in early June, but still paid some of these firms the same fee it had paid previous quarters.
We should expect third quarter lobbying of around $2 million from government-owned GM, because that’s about what the company’s internal lobbying shop cost, according to a GM spokesman.
