During their summer recess last month, Hill staffers took sponsored trips to conferences and tours in destinations like Aspen, Silicon Valley, Israel, and Vietnam, according to House and Senate travel disclosures. The trips give lobbyists and executives an opportunity to present their industry’s case directly to congressional staff—balance from watchdog organizations is typically lacking on the agendas.
Many staffers were gifted travel over their month-long break from Capitol Hill to hear about artificial intelligence (AI) from tech companies that are spending a fortune to influence federal policy. Lobbying spending by the Internet industry, led by tech giants Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet, is on track to reach record highs this year, according to OpenSecrets. Meta has launched a new super PAC, the American Technology Excellence Project, backed by tens of millions of dollars, that will seek to fend off state-level policies it views as burdensome. Tech firms a16z and OpenAI recently pledged to unleash further spending, via a $100 million super PAC, to prevent stricter AI regulations.
