Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space tourism company Blue Origin has hired the lobbyist Mac Campbell from Capitol Counsel to lobby on behalf of the company. The goal here is to “monitor and evaluate proposed changes to the Internal Revenue Code being considered by Congress as part of the budget reconciliation process” according to a lobbying registration form.
The lobbyist has ties to former President Barack Obama’s administration after a Democratic congressman proposed a tax that could make traveling to space a little more expensive.
Campbell was an assistant U.S. trade representative for congressional affairs while working in Obama’s executive office before moving on to the powerful Senate Finance Committee.
Only for this year Blue Origin has already spent over $1.3 million on lobbying alone. In 2020, the space company invested nearly $2 million trying to influence lawmakers.
President Joe Biden and Democrats are proposing a number of other tax provisions as part of their nearly $1.8 trillion social spending proposal that has yet to be passed by Congress. One of the ideas is to enact a 15% minimum corporate tax on declared income of large corporations.