But the behind-the-scenes lobbying by Amazon officials underscores how the company has quietly amassed an unrivalled position of power with the federal government. Amazon declined to comment on questions about how much of its business was currently connected to the federal government. Rung served as chief US acquisition officer under the Obama administration before she started working at Amazon on 1 November 2016. Federal law mandates a “cooling off” period of one year before former senior government officials work on projects that they worked on in government. Amazon declined to comment on the details of the exchange or provide any additional information about the Rung/Davie meeting.

Source: The Guardian December 26, 2018 06:00 UTC