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Wal-Mart's 'Invisible Army' of Lobbyists

Wal-Mart faces many threats to its ongoing profitability. That's why it employs two platoons worth of lobbyists, and spends millions of dollars annually to minimize the dangers from government policy.

Every year Wal-Mart is required to list out for the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) the 'risk factors' that could adversely affect its financial performance, such as:

….. prevailing wage rates... health and other insurance costs and adoption of new or revised employment and labor laws and regulations; All of our suppliers must comply with applicable laws, including labor, safety and environmental laws... the availability of raw materials to suppliers, merchandise quality issues, currency exchange rates, transport availability and cost, transport security, inflation and other factors... the U.S.'s foreign trade policies, tariffs and other impositions on imported goods, trade sanctions imposed on certain countries, the limitation on the importation of certain types of goods or of goods containing certain materials from other countries and other factors relating to foreign trade.

For these reasons, Wal-Mart hires lobbyists, and wages an aggressive campaign to hold what it calls "discussions" with dozens of federal agencies like the Department of Commerce, Department of State, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Labor, National Security Council, USDA, U.S. Trade Representative, and Congressional committees regarding the food industry, e-fairness taxation, financial services, health issues, labor issues, pharmacy, consumer issues, homeland security, immigration, firearms, manufacturing and veterans. These are all report areas from Wal-Mart's lobbying disclosure report to Congress.

 

Full story complements of the Huffington Post