An advocacy group funded by liberal billionaire George Soros spent a record amount on lobbying in 2019, filings show.
The Open Society Policy Center (OSPC), a D.C.-based nonprofit that has pushed funds toward advocacy that includes making gun companies liable for crimes committed with firearms, fighting Trump judicial nominations, and on issues related to immigration enforcement, dropped $24 million into lobbying efforts during the fourth quarter of 2019, disclosures filed Monday show. The money is the most the group has ever spent in a three-month span and propelled the group to its highest annual lobbying totals to date.
Soros’s lobbying shop has now poured nearly $100 million into advocacy efforts since President Donald Trump took office—$40 million more than it spent over the previous 14 years combined. OSPC ranked as a top-three spender, ahead of corporate giants Amazon, Facebook, Boeing, and Alphabet in recent years. The explosion in lobbying cash shows the extent the financier’s group is devoted to pushing back against the administration and bolstering the efforts of other progressive advocacy groups that are resisting the president’s agenda.
The OSPC, which acts as the advocacy arm to the Open Society Foundations network, uses two in-house lobbyists. The group also gives grants to like-minded groups for their own lobbying activities. – READ MORE