March 1, 2009: Richmond Times-Dispatch "Virginia’s big firms lobby hard in D.C., recession or not"
Submitted by VHSR on March 1, 2009 - 3:00am.
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Ten of Virginia's top 20 revenue-producing public companies combined to spend more than $100,000 a day lobbying the federal government last year, records show.
As CEOs grappled with a sliding U.S. economy and then-candidate Barack Obama targeted corporate influence in Washington, eight Virginia-based companies -- including the Richmond area's Altria Group Inc., Genworth Financial Inc. and Dominion Resources Inc. -- each spent more than $1 million in 2008 trying to influence lawmakers.