Amazon bolsters lobbying force for sales tax fight

Amazon is bolstering its lobbying forces for the battle over an online sales tax.

The company has hired Covington & Burling, an up-and-coming K Street firm, to lobby on the sales tax issue, according to Senate disclosure records. The firm will lobby on “issues related to the collection of state sales taxes by remote sellers,” Senate records show. “For more than a decade, Amazon has supported a national approach to sales tax and we’re actively working with Congress, retailers and the states to get federal legislation passed,” Amazon spokesman Ty Rogers said. Covington & Burlington will be lobbying for Amazon on legislation in the House and Senate, disclosure records show. The lobbying targets will be the Marketplace Equity Act of 2011, introduced by Steve Womack (R-AR) in the House and Mike Enzi (R-WY) in the Senate, and the Provider Tax Administrative Simplification Act of 2011, which was put forward by Sen. John Boozman (R-AR). The registration form, which is backdated to Oct. 24, lists former deputy secretary of labor and current firm partner Roderick DeArment as one of the lobbyists on the account. Others in the firm working for Amazon include William Wichterman, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, Holly Fechner, once policy director to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and Martin Gold, former floor adviser and counsel to then-Senate majority leader William Frist (R-TN) Amazon’s lobbying stable includes a number of other K Street firms, including The Bockorny Group.