Between 2000 and 2010, the company spent more than $220 million on lobbying and nearly $15 million in campaign contributions, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Although GE is not the only company to make such large political expenditures, the scale of its spending suggests a significant ability to influence policy. Gerth and Sloan note an example that highlights this influence. Section 954(h) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) allows qualifying entities' qualified banking and financial income to be deferred indefinitely until such income is repatriated. The Code's Section 954 provisions, known as the "active financing exemption," were set to expire at the end of 2008, and their expiration would leave GE with a significant tax bill on financial income held offshore by its subsidiaries foreign. GE CEO Jeff Immelt personally met with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen to press for the renewal of the provisions. Congress passed a bill renewing the exemption in less than a month