AT&T Hires Outside Help for Surveillance Lobbying
AT&T has hired former Rep. Michael Forbes, D-N.Y., to lobby on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and other telecom issues, according to registration documents filed with the Secretary of the Senate. Forbes, who quit the GOP while in office to become a Democrat in 1999, spent three terms in Congress and was among the first members to develop a website accepting campaign donations. AT&T’s signing of Forbes stands out by publicly identifying work on FISA legislation. Phone companies have hesitated to discuss their alleged involvement in a secret warrantless surveillance program ordered by the president after Sept. 11.
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AT&T hired Forbes at the end of October to work on FISA, Internet tax and other telecom legislation, said the filing, which listed his N.Y.-based firm PR/Strategies. Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported hiring Adam Eisgrau, former Judiciary counsel to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to work on FISA issues. Eisgrau is an advisory board member of Public Knowledge, among the public interest groups opposed to retroactive immunity for phone companies regarding alleged participation in the surveillance program.
AT&T’s estimated mid-year lobbying budget of $9.6 million on a variety of tax and communications issues put the company No. 5 among the top such spenders, CQ’s Political Moneyline reported. The leader was the U.S. Chamber, at $11.7 million, followed by health care bodies and General Electric. Mid-year forms were due in August. Year-end filings must be completed by mid-February.
Telecom’s mid-year outlays of $172.8 million slightly exceeded outlays for the period last year, congressional documents show. AT&T outspent other phone companies, leading Verizon, $3.4 million, Verizon Wireless, $2 million, and USTelecom, $1.7 million. Last year, USTelecom said it spent $15.2 million as Congress was considering major telecom bills.
Telecom bills this year are spread across a number of committees beyond the usual House and Senate Commerce Committee jurisdiction. The FISA bills were at the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees in both chambers; bills on interoperability were in Homeland Security; both chambers’ Agriculture Committees took up the farm bill, which includes broadband and universal service issues. Both Small Business Committees examined broadband bills. AT&T assigned about 16 lobbyists to work a long list of bills and proposed measures, according to its mid-year filing statement. These included universal service, broadband, identity theft, numbering rules, Internet tax moratorium, phone excise tax, 911, caller ID, access to 911 services in subways, spectrum and net neutrality issues.