U.S. Chamber Fights Bill Intended to Hold Corporations Accountable For Their Lobbying

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has voiced strong opposition against H.R.1, For the People Act. Their values reside with big businesses and not individuals.

By Nolan George, January 5, 2021

Senator Amy Klobuchar speaks on the Act from inside the Capitol Building

      H.R.1, For the People Act, is a democracy reform package that aims to give everyday people a bigger voice in politics and to create a more ethical and accountable government. However, this bill would disrupt the Chamber’s M.O. of ignoring the concerns of everyday people to promote the interests of corporations and the fossil fuel industry. For this reason, the Chamber has been very vocal about its disapproval of the bill.

Two months after the bill was introduced, on March 5th, 2019, the Chamber released a “Key Vote Alert” coalition letter urging members of the House to vote against it. With perhaps intentional irony, the second paragraph of the letter says, “the Chamber shares the goal of bringing more people into the political process.” However, this statement is belied by specific issues the Chamber had with H.R.1, as cited in lobbying reports from the Chamber. 

In particular, the lobbying reports repeatedly cited issues with Title IV, Subtitle F, which aims to ensure shareholders of corporations have knowledge of corporation political activity. This section would restrict the political disbursements (i.e. using the company’s money for political purposes, see the Federal Election Commission’s website for more information) of corporations, so that their political agenda would have to be aligned with shareholder preferences. This section would make it obligatory for corporations to have a communication system set up between shareholders and executives, whereas currently, most corporations make decisions surrounding political disbursements without contacting shareholders. These assessment requirements would revolve around gathering shareholders’ opinions on what disbursements they believe the company should make. For example, shareholders would state what political purposes they stand for so that corporations could better appeal to their political preferences. Furthermore, shareholders would state whether they are in support of or in opposition to different political parties and committees.

The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Headquarters in Washington D.C. (photo -Edward Headington)

In short, this bill aims to grant more power to shareholders to hold corporations accountable for their political activity. For the past decade, the pension funds of labor unions and faith-based groups have been pressuring corporations to make their lobbying activities more accountable. In our neoliberal political system, institutional investment funds are one of the few binding mechanisms available to hold corporations accountable.

Money is power, and, boy oh boy,  do corporations use it: “Corporate lobbying to influence laws and regulations affect all aspects of the economy, on issues from climate change and drug prices to financial regulation, immigration and workers’ rights. Over $3.3 billion in total was spent on federal lobbying in 2017, with companies spending about $2.6 billion. And companies also spend more than $1 billion yearly on lobbying at the state level. State lobbying is far less visible and transparent than federal lobbying. And trade associations spend over $100 million annually lobbying indirectly on behalf of companies,” John Keenan and Tim Smith, two leading shareholder activists explain. By far the biggest spender, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent over $1.4 billion on lobbying since 1998. H.R. 1 would allow labor unions and faith-based groups more visibility into how their investments are impacting this wide variety of issues.

The fact that the Chamber lobbied against this bill, in particular Title IV, Subtitle F, shows that they do not support their so-called “goal” of bringing more people into the political process. Instead, the Chamber has once again proven that its real goal is to suppress individuals’ voices in the political process so that its pro-corporate, pro-fossil fuel agenda can move forward unchecked. In order to promote a sustainable future, we must change the Chamber.