Google had nothing to do with Washington until 2005. Since then, Google lobbying spend has jumped hurdles over other tech companies. From 2008 to 2013 Google had increased their lobbying spend from 3.1 million to 15.8 million. That’s over a 5X increase!
Google Lobbying Spend
You will find more statistics at Statista
What do they spend it on? Well according to DailyTech.com they focus their spending on immigration reform, updates to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, legislation to block patent troll companies who purchase patent rights in order to sue other companies for profit, and privacy laws protecting user information like emails and history from law enforcement. Googles team consists of 14 lobbyists and has over 100 engineers and lawyers in their Washington office. Read more at DailyTech.com