Big Tech companies in the third quarter of 2024 lobbied on year-end spending packages and the annual defense policy bill, Maria reports.

Why it matters: All eyes will be on must-pass legislation during the lame duck, as lawmakers are unlikely to get to anything else across the finish line before the new Congress.

By the numbers: In Q3 2024, the top spenders were Meta, Amazon and Google.

Other companies kept their spending levels fairly steady from previous quarters.

• Oracle: $2.8 million
• Microsoft: $2.5 million
• Apple: $1.9 million

Some spent less in Q3 than the previous quarter.

• ByteDance: $2 million compared to $3.3 million
• IBM: $940,000 compared to $2 million

What's inside: Tech companies lobbied the House, Senate and Biden administration on privacy, content moderation, voter suppression, misinformation, affordable internet access, spectrum, competition issues in online advertising, workforce and other issues.

• The Future of AI Innovation Act and the CREATE AI Act, both of which are viewed as top contenders for any movement on AI this year, came up in several filings.

The Kids Online Safety Act and COPPA 2.0 may face an uphill climb in the lame duck, but Congress is still closer than ever before to passing protections for minors.

• With that in mind, companies continued lobbying on the two leading measures, including Meta, the top overall spender that would be the most impacted if they were to become laws.

AI companies continue to trail behind Big Tech spending, but did pour money into lobbying on AI bills in play for end-of-year legislative vehicles.

• OpenAI: $430,000 compared to $460,000 the previous quarter
• C3 AI: $130,000 (same as previous quarter)
• A16Z: $450,000 compared to $660,000
• Anthropic: $220,000 compared to $150,000

🤖 VA's AI task force: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the members of the state's new AI task force, which will meet twice a year.

• The task force was called for under the AI executive order that Youngkin signed in January.

👀 Khan-watch: If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the White House, one of her first fights may be over the future of FTC chair Lina Khan, our Axios colleague Dan Primack writes.

• Khan's three-year term expired in late September, but she can remain in the job as acting chair until or if she's replaced.
• To get another official term, she'd need to be renominated and confirmed by the Senate.

💰CHIPS cash: The Commerce Department last week announced a funding competition for up to $1.6 billion for advanced semiconductor packaging.

• CHIPS for America anticipates amounts for awards will range from $10-$150 million over a five-year period.

💸 Crypto campaign: Groups trying to elect pro-crypto candidates to Congress are set to spend $21 million more on ads to boost Republicans than they'll spend on Democrats in the run-up to the Nov. 5 election, per our Axios colleagues Stef W. Kight and Brady Dale.

📫 AI safety letter: Americans for Responsible Innovation and the Information Technology Industry Council led a letter today to congressional leadership calling for lawmakers to pass legislation authorizing the U.S. AI Safety Institute before the end of the year.

📄 AI bill stats: In 2024, 45 states considered nearly 700 pieces of AI-related legislation, per a BSA | The Software Alliance analysis, and 113 bills became law.