Meta Spent $6.5M to Strip Privacy Rules Before Securing $1.2B AI Contract

Meta Platforms reported a record-high $6.5 million in lobbying expenditures for the final quarter of 2025. This 32% surge over the previous quarter occurred precisely as the 2026 Omnibus Budget Bill underwent a closed-door transformation. Between December 12 and December 19, 2025, three key privacy amendments targeting biometric data retention and third-party API restrictions were stripped from the bill. These amendments, if passed, would have rendered Meta’s current hardware and data architecture non-compliant with federal standards.

The money trail connects directly to the committees responsible for these deletions. During that same seven-day window in December, Meta’s Political Action Committee (PAC) disbursed $450,000 to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. These payments were followed by $185,000 in individual contributions from Meta executives—including VP of Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan—to the leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee. Kaplan, a former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, has utilized deep ties to committee chairs to position Meta as the 'safety-first' partner for federal AI initiatives.

While mainstream outlets frame Meta’s increased Washington presence as a cooperative effort to ensure 'American AI dominance' over foreign rivals, the filings reveal a simpler motive: securing the $1.2 billion 'Project Homecoming' contract. This fast-track federal procurement for AI-driven surveillance infrastructure is contingent on the absence of the very data-governance laws Meta successfully lobbied against. By stripping these guardrails, Meta effectively grandfathered in its existing proprietary models while creating high-cost safety standards that act as barriers to entry for open-source competitors.

The result is a textbook case of regulatory capture. The Senate Commerce Committee is currently setting AI safety standards that favor Meta’s specific technology over the rest of the industry. This ensures that the $1.2 billion in taxpayer funds allocated for 'Project Homecoming' stays within Meta’s ecosystem. The mainstream narrative ignores the specific timing of FEC disbursements relative to the budget markup sessions, focusing instead on high-level safety pledges that have no legal weight.

For ordinary citizens, this means the loss of federal legal protections for biometric data—including facial recognition and physiological tracking—under the guise of national security. Tax dollars are being funneled into a massive surveillance infrastructure that was stripped of privacy guardrails at the request of the contractor building it. Your personal data is no longer a liability for Meta; it is now a government-funded asset.