TruGreen Parent Company Spent $2.2M Lobbying Last Year

Lawn care and pest-control provider ServiceMaster Co. spent $2.2 million last year to lobby the federal government, Yahoo! News reports.

The owner of TruGreen lawn care, Terminix pest control and the Merry Maids cleaning-service brands spent $1 million in the second half of 2007 to lobby Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a disclosure form posted online Feb. 13 by the Senate's public records office.
 
ServiceMaster lobbied on parts of the federal farm bill that apply to insecticides and fungicides and on a bill signed by President Bush in October that extended funding for pesticide oversight office. ServiceMaster spent $1.2 million in the first half of 2007 to lobby on issues including labor regulators and agriculture programs.

Memphis, Tenn. -based ServiceMaster was acquired last year by private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995.