Silicon Valley Cozies Up to Washington, Outspending Wall Street 2-1

A political weather map of America would show Wall Street under a cloud, and Silicon Valley bathed in sunshine. Over the Obama administration’s eight years, the technology industry has embedded itself in Washington. The president hung out with Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg and hired the government’s first chief tech officer. At least at the lower levels of officialdom, the revolving door with companies such as Google is spinning ever faster -- as it once did with Wall Street. Politicians have played down their connections to finance since the taxpayer bailout of 2008. No such stigma attaches to tech, for now. But as the Valley steps up its lobbying efforts, with a wish-list that ranges from immigration to rules for driverless cars, some critics warn that similar traps lie in wait: It’s not easy for the government to police an industry from which it poaches talent and solicits help with writing laws.

The five biggest U.S. tech companies are now the five biggest companies, period -- at least as measured by market value. And they’re flexing that financial muscle. The tech firms spent $49 million on Washington lobbyists in 2015, while the five largest banks shelled out $19.7 million, data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics shows.

On the personnel front, the Campaign for Accountability, a non-profit group, studied the to-and-fro between government and Google. It found that 183 people who worked under President Barack Obama through 2015 were hired by Google, while 58 headed the other way.