Every January, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue gives a speech detailing the organization’s agenda.

Each year, he touches on the same tired arguments about how America needs more so-called free trade, greater investments in dirty energy, and less government oversight, and then  rattles off a laundry list of supposed unfair burdens to business.  One of his favorite targets is government oversight through regulation.

2011 – “In recent years, we have seen an unprecedented explosion of new regulatory activity. Furthermore, the administration is likely to turn increasingly to the regulatory agencies now that getting legislation out of Congress could be more difficult. The resulting regulatory tsunami poses, in our view, the single biggest challenge to jobs, our global competitiveness, and the future of American enterprise.”

2012 – “The regulatory avalanche confronting our job creators is unprecedented.”

2013 – “Here’s another big issue for us. We need to address the coming flood of new regulations that will discourage our job creators and damage our competitive edge in the global economy.”

And this year was no exception:

2014– “How will an avalanche of confusing and conflicting regulations on energy, the environment, capital markets, and workplaces impact business operations just as things are starting to hum?”

But bemoaning a purported regulatory attack on business was even less credible than usual following a year where both corporate profits and stock prices have hit all-time highs.

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Bribery is bad.

It hurts our economy by making it hard for legitimate businesses to compete, and it hurts democracy by eroding the trust people have in public institutions.

That’s why we found it a bit shocking that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – an organization that purports to be on the side of all businesses – has spent so many resources over the past few years trying to weaken laws that keep big corporations from gaining an advantage through bribery.

A new U.S. Chamber Watch paper highlights the U.S. Chamber’s efforts to weaken the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA). This important law has been around since the 1970’s and prohibits companies from trading anything of value to public officials in exchange for favorable business treatment.

Seems pretty smart right?

Well, the U.S. Chamber dislikes the FCPA enough to ask for some rather startling changes to weaken its effectiveness.

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This week, the research department here at Public Citizen released a paper that reminded us just how big the footprint of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has.

For those that don’t know, the U.S. Chamber has spent more than $1 billion on lobbying since 1998. And that’s in addition to all the money it has spent on elections – $35+ million in 2012 alone.

The report also reminded us just how secret this money is.

While 24 donors to the U.S. Chamber (23 of whom are Fortune 500 companies) voluntarily disclosed their contributions, the rest are mostly a mystery.

And while it’s great that 23 of the top 500 companies in the world have chosen to disclose, that still leaves us in the dark about many others.

Meaning those that invest in these companies and those who buy their products have very little knowledge of what kind of political stances their dollars are supporting.

All the more reason why the Securities and Exchange Commission should adopt a pending rule that would require publicly traded companies to disclose donations made to groups like the U.S. Chamber.

Transparency plays a key role in protecting our democracy and it’s important we fight for it.

Send a message to the Securities and Exchange Commission in support of the political spending disclosure rulemaking.

Jake Parent is the coordinator of Public Citizen’s U.S. Chamber Watch. To learn more about Chamber Watch, follow @uschamberwatch on Twitter and sign up for email updates

Ever wonder why our political system seems to be dominated by corporate interests?

An excellent report just out from the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) helps shed light on that very question.

Through some impressive tracking work, CRP showed that one of the biggest mouthpieces for Big Business – the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – has become the first organization to spend a total of $1 billion on lobbying since CRP started keeping track in 1998.

In comparison, the report showed the next highest spender during that time was General Electric, at just shy of $294 million.

Although this year so far has been slow for the U.S. Chamber (in terms of reported dollars spent on lobbying), the group’s spending has increased greatly since current President Tom Donohue took over the organization in 1997.

The year after Donohue started leading the U.S. Chamber, the group spent just $17 million. By 2010, that number had risen to $157 million.

The U.S. Chamber’s Agenda

The organization now reportedly staffs 88 in-house lobbyists in addition to others hired through outside firms. In 2012 alone, 183 individuals from 33 different lobbying groups represented the U.S. Chamber, according to the report.

So that leaves one to wonder…

What exactly is the U.S. Chamber using this money to fight for?

The U.S. Chamber has a broad agenda that includes supporting outdated energy policies like the Keystone XL pipeline and attempting to forestall implementation of the important financial regulations we need to enact to protect our economy from another financial crisis.

A Growing Difference of Opinion

Although it claims to “protect free enterprise,” the policy stances of the U.S. Chamber have been losing it the support of some in the business community.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the construction firm Skanska left the U.S. Chamber because the company felt its interest in improved green building standards were not being represented..

In addition, several big name companies like Yahoo, Apple, and PG&E have all left the U.S. Chamber because the organization chose to support policies the companies felt were opposed to the firms’ business interests.

Others like Google, (although still currently members) have voiced similar concerns as well.
And these companies aren’t the only ones raising concerns.

Recently, U.S. Chamber Watch and our allies from the Corporate Reform Coalition gathered more than 300,000 consumer signatures on a citizen’s petition and got 26 investor groups to send letters asking Google to end its ties with the U.S. Chamber.

We hope the leaders at Google listen.

By spending such a huge sum of money on lobbying, the U.S. Chamber is effectively drowning out the voices of citizens – those who matter most if we are to have a healthy political system.

Jake Parent is the coordinator of Public Citizen’s U.S. Chamber Watch. To learn more about Chamber Watch, follow @uschamberwatch on Twitter and sign up for email updates