Facebook 
founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before the House Committee
 on Energy and Commerce today, fresh off the heels of a grueling 
five-hour joint session before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce 
committees yesterday. In total, Zuckerberg will face questions from 
nearly 100 legislators, and many of those legislators have received 
thousands of dollars from the company Zuckerberg runs.
Over the last 12 years, Facebook has spent $7 million in 
campaign contributions. Historically, Facebook has donated slightly more
 to Democrats than Republicans, but overall, the platform’s political 
footprint is small in Washington, DC relative to its market cap, which 
is currently calculated at about $400 billion. That’s not unusual for 
technology companies: Amazon
 spent $4 million in campaign contributions over 20 years, and it has a 
market cap of nearly $700 billion. (Note, however, that Alphabet, Inc., 
with a market cap just over Amazon’s, appears to be outspending Facebook in DC by an order of magnitude.) 
According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics,
 since 2014, Facebook has contributed a total of $641,685 to the members
 of Congress that Zuckerberg is facing this week. The top recipients of 
that money include Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), 
and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA). 
The amount of money received didn’t necessarily correlate
 to the hostility of questions asked by the legislators in Zuckerberg’s 
first hearing. That said, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) did make a somewhat 
bizarre pro-Facebook comment, saying, “Some have professed themselves 
shocked, shocked that companies like Google and Facebook share 
user data with advertisers. Did any of these individuals stop to ask 
themselves why Google and Facebook don’t charge for access? Nothing in 
life is free.” Hatch has taken $15,200 from Facebook since 2014 — the 
sixth largest amount on the combined committees.  
But other senators who have received even larger campaign
 contributions from Facebook didn’t hold back. Cory Booker, who has 
received $44,025 from Facebook since 2014 (the largest amount), 
questioned Zuckerberg on the 2016 ProPublica investigation
 that showed Facebook allowed advertisers to target by race. Kamala 
Harris, who took the second largest amount ($30,990) grilled the CEO on 
why Facebook did not notify users in 2015 that Cambridge Analytica had 
misused their data, causing Zuckerberg to squirm uncomfortably. 
If any senators pulled their punches, it was along party 
lines, when small-government Republicans like Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) 
or Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) questioned the necessity of additional 
regulation. At one point Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) held up a tablet and 
pointed at the Facebook “privacy” tab, blaming individuals for not 
properly reviewing their own settings. Wicker has received $10,000 from 
Facebook since 2014, Tillis has received $7,500, and Sullivan has 
received a whopping $2,500. 
The campaign contributions from Facebook to all the 
legislators who posed Mark Zuckerberg questions this week are listed 
below. The list includes the members of the Senate Judiciary and 
Commerce committees and House Committee on Energy and Commerce are 
listed in full below, and dates back to 2014.
Committee Leaders
| Legislator | Committee | Role | Party | 2014 Cycle | 2016 Cycle | 2018 Cycle | Total 2014-2018 | 
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grassley, Chuck (R-IA) | Senate Judiciary | Chairman | R | $1,000 | $4,000 | $0 | $5,000 | 
| Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA) | Senate Judiciary | Ranking Minority Member | D | $10,000 | $1,000 | $0 | $11,000 | 
| Thune, John (R-SD) | Senate Commerce | Chairman | R | $3,500 | $5,000 | $2,000 | $10,500 | 
| Nelson, Bill (D-FL) | Senate Commerce | Ranking Minority Member | D | $2,500 | $5,000 | $2,500 | $10,000 | 
| Walden, Greg (R-OR) | House Energy & Commerce | Chairman | R | $7,500 | $7,000 | $5,500 | $20,000 | 
| Pallone, Frank (D-NJ) | House Energy & Commerce | Ranking Minority Member | D | $3,500 | $0 | $2,500 | $6,000 | 
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