Elon Musk's SpaceX has spent nearly $1.8 million on political lobbying this year, more than Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin
Elon Musk's SpaceX has spent nearly $1.8 million on political lobbying this year, CNBC first reported.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has spent just under $1.4 million, data from Open Secrets shows.
Blue Origin has been locked in a legal challenge with NASA over a SpaceX contract.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has spent more on political lobbying this year than rival billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, data suggests.
As first reported by CNBC, SpaceX has spent just under $1.8 million so far this year and Blue Origin has spent just under $1.4 million, data from Open Secrets, a nonprofit that monitors political lobbying expenditure, shows.
Musk said in a September tweet he prefers to "stay out of politics." He has been known to give his personal opinion on politics, however, calling lockdown measures "fascist" and attacking Joe Biden over the president's supposedly "biased" stance on unions.
SpaceX spent $2.2 million on lobbying in 2020 while Blue Origin spent $1.9 million in the same year, per the Open Secrets data.
SpaceX this year spent $590,000 directly lobbying lawmakers, including the Executive Office of the President, CNBC reported. The company also spent more than $210,000 on campaign contributions to bipartisan congressional candidates in the first half of 2021, CNBC said.
While SpaceX has spent more on political lobbying than Blue Origin, per the Open Secrets data, Blue Origin has been notably active in the courts.
SpaceX was awarded a $2.9 billion contract by NASA in April to help take US astronauts back to the moon. Blue Origin filed a challenge with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in April but its case was rejected by the GAO in July.
Blue Origin also sued NASA in August but the US Court of Federal Claims ruled against Bezos' company on November 4.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday that NASA's target for getting astronauts to the moon by 2024 had been pushed back to 2025, and partially blamed Blue Origin's legal fights for the delay.
No comments:
Post a Comment