United States Chamber of Commerce

United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is an American lobbying group representing the interests of many businesses and trade associations. It is not an agency of the United States government.

The Chamber is staffed with policy specialists, lobbyists and lawyers. Politically, the Chamber is generally considered to be a conservative organization. The Chamber is one of the largest lobbying groups in the U.S., spending more money than any other lobbying organization on a yearly basis.

Electoral activities

In the 2008 election cycle, aggressive ads paid for by the USCC attacked a number of Democratic congressional candidates (such as Minnesota's DFL Senate candidate Al Franken) and supported a number of Republican candidates including John Sununu, Gordon Smith, Roger Wicker, Saxby Chambliss and Elizabeth Dole.

During the 2010 campaign cycle, the Chamber spent $32 million, 93 percent of which was to help Republican candidates. The Chamber's spending out of its general funds was criticized as illegal under campaign finance laws. In a front-page article titled "Large Donations Aid U.S. Chamber in Election Drive", The New York Times reported that the Chamber used contributions in campaigns without separating foreign and domestic contributions. This is illegal because foreign nations and groups are not allowed to monetarily lobby in the U.S. In question was the Chamber's international branches, “AmChams”, whose funds are unaccounted for and perhaps mix into the general collection.  All branches, corporations, and members of the Chamber pay dues; the question is how they divide the money for expenses in national campaigns.

The truth of these allegations is unknown, as neither the Chamber nor its detractors can provide any concrete evidence to support or refute the allegations.  In reference to the matter, Tom Donohue wrote his council and members on October 12, 2010. He stated, “Let me be clear. The Chamber does not use any foreign money to fund voter education activities—period. We have strict financial controls in place to ensure this. The funds we receive from American Chambers of Commerce abroad, bilateral business councils, and non-U.S. based global companies represent a small fraction of our more than $200 million annual revenues. Under our accounting system, these revenues are never used to support any political activities. We are in full compliance with all laws and regulations.”Organizations Moveon.org, Think Progress, and People for the American Way rallied against the Chamber at the Justice Department to start an injunction for a criminal investigation. As of yet, the Justice Department has not taken any inquiries as a serious legal threat. The Chamber is not required to produce records of its coffers or fundraising.

History

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's own history of itself describes it as originating from an April 12, 1912 meeting of delegates. The Chamber was created by President Taft as a counterbalance to the labor movement of the time.

The Chamber generally leans toward Republican causes, but tries to maintain amicable relationships with both parties. For instance, the Chamber supported both Ronald Reagan's tax cuts and Bill Clinton's NAFTA efforts. In 1993 the Chamber lost several members over its support for Clinton's healthcare reform efforts. The Chamber had chosen to support healthcare reform at that time due to the spiraling healthcare costs experienced by its members. However, House Republicans retaliated by urging boycotts of the organization. The Chamber operated its own cable television station, Biz-Net until 1997 in order to promote its policies. The Chamber shifted somewhat more to the rightward when Tom Donahue became head of the organization in 1997. By the time health care reform became a major issue again in 2010, the organization opposed such efforts.

On the Issues

The Chamber's positions include:

Supports corporate globalization/free trade and outsourcing

Opposes financial regulation

Opposes the DISCLOSE Act 

Opposes healthcare reform and the Affordable Health Care for America Act

Opposes action on climate change

Supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 

Neutral on social questions such as abortion and gay marriage

The Chamber campaigned against portions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Argued a case all the way to the supreme court opposing mandatory immigration status checks by employers in Arizona 

Lobbying

The Chamber has emerged as the largest lobbying organization in America. It spent $91.7 million on lobbying in 2008, and $144.5 million in 2009, up from $18.7 million in 2000. The Chamber's lobbying expenditures in 2009 were five times as high as the next highest spender: Exxon Mobil, at $27.4 million. The Chamber had more than 150 lobbyists from 25 different firms working on its behalf in 2009. The major issues that it advocated on were in the categories of torts, government issues, finance, banking and taxes.

International network

As of October 2010, the Chamber had a worldwide network of 115 American Chamber of Commerce affiliates located in 108 countries. The US Chamber says that a “relative handful” of the Chamber’s 300,000 members are “non-U.S.-based (foreign) companies.” It adds that, “No foreign money is used to fund political activities.” A US Chamber executive has said that the organization has had “foreign multinationals” (foreign companies) as members for “over a century, many for decades.” The US Chamber states that it receives approximately $100,000 annually in membership dues from its foreign affiliates.

Controversies

In April 2009, the Chamber began an ad campaign against the proposed Employee Free Choice Act.Critics such as the National Association of Manufacturers have contended that additional use of card check elections will lead to overt coercion on the part of union organizers. Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act also claim, referring to perceived lack of access to a secret ballot, that the measure would not protect employee privacy. Hence they claim the act will reduce workers' rights.

The Chamber is opposed to action on climate change, The Chamber threatened to sue the Environmental Protection Agency in order to have a hearing on climate science hearing before any federal climate regulation is passed in October 2009. In response to this position, several companies quit the Chamber, including Exelon Corp, PG&E Corp, PNM Resources, and Apple Inc. Nike, Inc has decided to resign from their board of directors position but to continue their membership. Nike stated that they believe they can better influence the policy by being part of the conversation. In response to an online campaign of Prius owners organized by Moveon.org, Toyota has stated that it is not leaving the Chamber.