Consumer Watchdog – Google lobbying revealed

First quarter lobbying reports just filed with the U.S. Senate's Office of Public Records show that Google lobbied Congress about electronic medical record provisions in the federal economic stimulus act.

When we raised concerns in February about Google's "rumored lobbying" on the issue of online medical records, the Internet giant posted an item on its Public Policy Blog saying, "This claim -- based on no evidence whatsoever -- is 100 percent false and unfounded."

Google's first quarter report says it spent $880,000 on its own lobbying efforts which included, "Online health-related initiatives; issues relating to online personal health records, including in connection with H.R. 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009."

After our February news release, Robert Boorstin, Google's Director of Corportate and Policy Communications, attempted to have our funding cut off. 

Today we wrote a letter to Googe CEO Eric Schmidt asking for an apology and a full exlpanation of what Google was doing in the Capitol. Based on the record so far, Google has offered only misleading explanations of their activities.

Stay tuned.