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VW, with limited D.C. lobbying footprint, braces for Congress

A VW employee enters the Volkswagen factory site through Gate 17 in Wolfsburg, Germany, Oct. 6, 2015. For Volkswagen, the cost of its cheating on emissions tests in the U.S. is likely to run into the tens of billions of dollars and prematurely end its long-sought status as the world's biggest carmaker. (Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via AP)
A VW employee enters the Volkswagen factory site through Gate 17 in Wolfsburg, Germany, Oct. 6, 2015. For Volkswagen, the cost of its cheating on emissions tests in the U.S. is likely to run into the tens of billions of dollars and prematurely end its long-sought status as the world's biggest carmaker. (Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via AP) A VW employee enters the Volkswagen factory site through Gate 17 in Wolfsburg, Germany, Oct. 6, 2015. For Volkswagen, the cost of its cheating on emissions tests in the U.S. is likely to run into the tens of billions of dollars and prematurely end its long-sought status as the world's biggest carmaker. (Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via AP)

By Associated Press 5 min read

WASHINGTON — When Volkswagen’s top American executive heads to Capitol Hill this week, he probably won’t be able to count on longtime allies among the lawmakers investigating the company’s emissions cheating scandal.

The world’s No. 1 automaker has a modest political footprint in Washington, and that will put Volkswagen Group of America President and CEO Michael Horn at a disadvantage Thursday when he appears before the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. It will be Horn’s first time testifying before Congress.

The panel’s chairman, Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., said lawmakers will investigate Volkswagen’s admission that it installed “defeat-devices” in some diesel vehicles that emitted far more exhaust pollution than was legal. “The American people want to know why these devices were in place, how the decision was made to install them and how they went undetected for so long,” Murphy said in a statement. “We will get them those answers.”

Campaign finance records show only a few thousand dollars in federal campaign donations by Volkswagen’s top executives during the most recent election cycle – a figure dwarfed by the political giving of its top global competitors.

VW did report spending about $1 million a year on its in-house lobbying operation run out of the German giant’s U.S. headquarters in northern Virginia. It spent $260,000 or so more annually on outside help from a DC-based lobbying law firm, largely focusing on issues affecting diesel engines, emissions regulations and fuel efficiency standards, records show.