Microsoft is learning the hard way about how to be a player in Washington. After getting slapped around by politicians, government regulators and the media in the past few months, the company is reluctantly ramping up its presence on Capitol Hill.

Although Microsoft still maintains a low profile in the US capital, it has one of the fastest-growing lobbying operations there. In 1997, Microsoft boosted its annual spending on courting lawmakers by approximately one-third, to more than $2 million.