EADS North America spent $850,000 to lobby in first quarter

The North American arm of the European aerospace and defense contractor, which is the parent of Airbus, focused much of its lobbying on Congress and the Defense Department during the first three months of the year.

EADS and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., recently beat out Boeing Co. for a $35 billion contract to supply 179 air-to-air refueling tankers to the Air Force. The deal is the first of three Air Force awards worth as much $100 billion to replace the entire fleet of nearly 600 tankers over the next 30 years.

Boeing, which has been supplying refueling tankers to the Air Force for 50 years, has filed a formal protest of the decision with the Government Accountability Office. And Boeing supporters in Congress have hauled Air Force officials up to Capitol Hill multiple times in recent weeks to explain their decision to award the contract to a team that includes a European company.