U.S. Business Coalition for TPP

Common Cause: "Trade deals have always been about money, but the massive spending by corporations that support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) reveals their huge influence in the legislative process. As Congress considered “fast track” measures giving President Obama authority to approve the largest trade deal in history, a review of public records indicates the corporate alliance supporting the proposed TPP spent at least $658 million on federal lobbying in 2014 and political action in the 2014 cycle. This does not count money donated to dark money political nonprofits. Common Cause analyzed the 2014 political spending of members of the U.S. Business Coalition for TPP, a group of over 150 corporations and trade associations pushing for the TPP, which includes the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), and Trade Promotion Authority (fast track). The coalition spending has also continued after the 2014 elections. The Guardian previously reported that members of this same coalition spent $1.14 million on campaign contributions to US Senate campaigns between January and March 2015. The story is similar in the House of Representatives, as a MapLight report shows that representatives who voted Yes for TPA earlier this month received approximately $230,000 more in campaign contributions over a two-year period from pro-TPA groups than those who voted No."