WAPO – Telecom industry spends $21M on lobbying during 1st quarter
Broadband providers including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Verizon Communications have amassed armies of former government officials and spent $21 million in the first quarter of the year to lobby against net neutrality and other regulations at the Federal Communications Commission, according to a report by the Sunlight Foundation.
In a review released Monday, the nonprofit public interest organization said those firms hired 276 former government officials, including 18 former members of Congress, to fight against rules that would require them to treat all Web sites and content equally on their networks.
“We’ve heard promises to stop the spin of the revolving door between government and lobbying, but that’s clearly not happening,” said Paul Blumenthal, senior writer at the Sunlight Foundation.
Jim Davis, a former Democratic congressman from Florida, went to AT&T; Jack Fields, a former Republican congressman from Texas, went to Verizon; Ron Klink, a former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, went to Comcast; and Chip Pickering, a former Republican congressman from Mississippi, went to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the cable industry trade group.
Washington Post
6/21/10
Magnolia Tribune
