Us Chamber of Commerce & American Cancer Society
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US Chamber of Commerce & the American Cancer Society
When Major business corporations have a special interest in certain law changes, the practice of lobbying to get desired interests to pass as a law becomes prevalent. In addition to campaign contributions, a vast number of groups spend billions each year on lobbying federal agencies and congress. Some of these groups include: candidates and elected officials, labor unions, companies and organizations. While lobbying is considered free speech in the United States, it is controversial practices in the eyes of American citizens due to billions of dollars that get spend each year. Since there are rules to follow when practicing lobbying, there are penalties associated if the rules are not followed correctly and could result in jail time. In Washington, the main targets of lobbyists are usually members of congress.
The US chamber of commerce is considered the world’s largest non-government business organization as it spends the most amount of money each year on lobbying. Founded in 1912, the organization focuses on representing interests of millions of businesses regardless of sector and company size. The increase in the organizations lobbying influence led to positions on current issues such as tort and entitlement reform, greater domestic energy production, opposing excessive regulation, government run health care, and many other current headline topics. An impressive fact is that the US chamber of commerce not only uses its own lobbyists but also uses external lobbyists such as former attorney generals for example. In 2011, the chamber of commerce contributed to former attorney general Michael Mukasey in order to make amendments to make the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act less harmful for companies and individuals. Since Tom Donahue took over as head of the chamber of commerce in 1997, critics indicate that the organization is leaning towards a republican side by advocating and lobbying for those interests. This fact can be traced back to the contributions that were largely made by republican entities. The chamber of commerce does not hold back either against individuals that believe in the opposite of the organization’s views by producing commercials against people or groups that believe in raising the tax rates. In order to raise more funds, the US chamber of commerce created a vast amount of organizations internally to raise more contributions by companies or individuals. Some of these organizations include: the National Chamber Litigation Centre (NCLC),