Facebook's lobbying climbs to record level

Facebook is searching for friends in the nation's capital faster than ever.

When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the company had no federal lobbyists in Washington (DC), but since then, Facebook's lobbying expenditures have soared. During the third quarter of 2013 alone, Facebook reported spending $1.4 million on lobbying -- its second-highest quarterly amount since it first hired federal lobbyists in mid-2009. Since then, Facebook has spent $10.7 million on lobbying, including nearly $5 million so far, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of records filed with the US Senate. No matter what it spends during the final quarter of the year, 2013 will be a record year for the company. During the third quarter of 2013, Facebook lobbied on a host of issues including “privacy, security, protecting children and online safety,” as the Center for Public Integrity previously noted. The company also reported being active around "general electronic privacy issues including geolocation information" and "discussions urging more transparency and flexibility around national security-related orders as Facebook and many of its tech counterparts have been embroiled in controversy following revelations earlier by contractor Edward Snowden about National Security Agency surveillance measures. Facebook's political action committee -- which it launched in the autumn of 2011 -- is also on pace for a record-setting year. The PAC, which most recently submitted a financial report to the Federal Election Commission in July 2013, raised $203,000 during the first six months of 2013. That's up from $175,000 in all of 2012, and $170,000 in 2011.