Most major tech companies increased the amount of money they spent attempting to influence lawmakers and the regulatory process in Washington through federal lobbying.

Behind the increased spending is a push by tech companies to reduce or eliminate regulations that are slowing them down as they expand into other sections of the economy like cars and medical devices.

Google spent more on lobbying than any other tech company, although the $16.7 million total for 2015 was down about 1 percent from 2014.

The money was spent lobbying in traditional tech areas such as cybersecurity and online competition, big-business issues like the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal and immigrant worker visas, and areas connected with Google research such as wind power, according to a lobbying disclosure report filed on Wednesday.

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