The FCC hired a former senior adviser in...
The FCC hired a former senior adviser in the Democratic National Committee’s finance operations as a political appointee responsible for external relations, an agency spokesman said. He said Eric Feigenbaum, who has sat in on some recent net neutrality lobbying…
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meetings, is barred from doing any fundraising under the Hatch Act. Feigenbaum didn’t respond to our request for comment, and the DNC had none other than to give his title there. Feigenbaum started July 7 as a political appointee in the Office of Media Relations, said the FCC spokesman Friday. His position involves soliciting input from and providing information to stakeholders, said the spokesman. According to a LinkedIn page that the FCC spokesman confirmed as Feigenbaum’s, he had been a senior adviser since March 2013, after working for Obama for America from April 2011 to February 2013. He was Mid-Atlantic finance director for the Obama group, the FCC spokesman said. Feigenbaum also was deputy national finance director at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from January 2009 to March 2011, and deputy regional finance director for the DSCC from February 2007 to January 2009, his LinkedIn page said. His “organizational strengths, together with his considerable outreach skills, make him a great addition,” the spokesman said. Feigenbaum was involved in two recent meetings on net neutrality, ex parte filings show. In a July 17 meeting, AOL executives met with Gigi Sohn, special counsel for external affairs; Philip Verveer, Wheeler’s senior counsel; Daniel Alvarez, Wheeler’s legal adviser; Sagar Doshi, Wheeler’s special assistant; Deputy Wireline Bureau Chief Matthew DelNero; and David Toomey, deputy director of legislative affairs, as well as Feigenbaum, an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1nRY84x) said. AOL pushed for the commission to rely on Communications Act Section 706 in crafting narrowly tailored net neutrality rules including a ban on pay-to-play when a broadband access provider has market power, the filing said. Title II should be used only as a backstop, AOL said. Feigenbaum was also involved in a July 16 meeting with Tekedra Mawakana, Yahoo’s global head of public policy, and Margaret Nagle, the company’s head of U.S. government affairs, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1yRJHFT). The company made the same pitch as AOL, the ex parte filing said. Yahoo-connected individuals contributed $284,281 in the 2012 cycle, including $82,300 to the DNC and $75,968 to the Obama campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (http://bit.ly/1nD1kFs). Neither AOL nor Yahoo would comment. — KM