Former Rep. Susan Molinari to be Google's Government Go-Between

With the Federal Trade Commission being asked to investigate Google’s latest privacy policy and antitrust questions coming from both U.S. courts and E.U. regulators, the online search giant needs all the friends in Washington, D.C., that it can get. And it just got one more: former Republican Congresswoman Susan Molinari, who is joining Google as its vice president of public policy and government relations for the Americas.

According to a report in Politico, Molinari is “a well-liked and well-connected inside player” who will be tasked with “increasing the tech giant’s government firepower at a time of rising scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators on high-stakes issues that include privacy and antitrust.”

Molinari is taking the wheel of Google’s Washington office, which over the years has grown a significant lobbying footprint in the capital. According to The Bulletin:

Google has become a major force in Washington. Once disdainful of the lobbying tactics of other companies, Google’s Beltway operations have become nearly indistinguishable from the most powerful corporations that line K Street.

Last year, it doubled the amount it spent on lobbying to $10 million and doubled the size of its employee political donation fund to $836,000.

That money looks to be a good investment for Google: in 2011, the company settled a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into its pharmaceutical advertising with a $500 million payout; the Electronic Privacy Information Center recently asked the FTC to investigate whether Google’s integration of social media into search results violated an earlier settlement with the regulator [http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202538389284]; and now Google’s updated privacy policy is drawing government scrutiny at home and abroad.

Molinari, a former member of New York State’s Congressional delegation, is taking over the reins of Google’s Washington office from Alan Davidson, who announced his departure in November. Davidson began building the web company’s lobbying operation in 2005.

An unnamed Google official told Politico that Molinari’s brief is to “help lawmakers and regulators understand Google’s business—both the technology and its impact on the economy and our culture.” Since 2001, she has been an active D.C. lobbyist, most recently as the head of her own shop, Susan Molinari Strategies LLC.

See also: “Are E.U. and Google Data Policies the Future of Online Privacy?”, CorpCounsel, January 2012.