{"id":3824,"date":"2010-10-31T12:42:34","date_gmt":"2010-10-31T16:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/blog\/?p=3824"},"modified":"2022-12-30T15:44:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T20:44:04","slug":"att-the-leader-in-lobbying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/att-the-leader-in-lobbying\/","title":{"rendered":"ATT the Leader in Lobbying"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20200627121128\/http:\/\/www.michellehenry.fr:80\/lobby.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-110558 size-medium\" title=\"ATT the Leader in Lobbying\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/lobbying-4.gif?resize=150%2C140&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"ATT the Leader in Lobbying\" width=\"150\" height=\"140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/lobbying-4.gif?resize=150%2C140&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/lobbying-4.gif?resize=75%2C70&amp;ssl=1 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>With the political silly season upon us. The good folks over at <em><a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ars-technica<\/a><\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/news\/2010\/09\/hey-capitol-hill---whose-your-daddy-att.ars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">points us to<\/a> The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Open Secrets database<\/a>. According to them, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.att.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AT&amp;T<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyse.com\/quote\/XNYS:T\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">T<\/a>) easily qualifies as the top all-time donor to political campaigns. From 1990 through 2010, the carrier in its various ownership forms spent over <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20200218062727\/http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org:80\/orgs\/list.php?order=A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$45,461,879 lobbying politicians<\/a>, outspending the next two corporate lobbying contenders, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realtor.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Association of Realtors<\/a> ($36,749,493) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.goldmansachs.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Goldman Sachs<\/a> ($32,660,452).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110560\" title=\"Open Secrets logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/OpenSecrets_logo.jpg?resize=109%2C41&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Open Secrets logo\" width=\"109\" height=\"41\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/OpenSecrets_logo.jpg?resize=150%2C56&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/OpenSecrets_logo.jpg?resize=75%2C28&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/OpenSecrets_logo.jpg?w=256&amp;ssl=1 256w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 109px) 100vw, 109px\" \/><\/a>The money AT&amp;T spends on lobbying politicians comes from every monthly customer bill paid for dial-tone, iPhone, U-Verse, DSL, etc. service.\u00a0 <em>Ars-technica<\/em> says that tracking where AT&amp;T spends its money is easy. Figuring out the corporation&#8217;s politics is harder. OpenSecrets.org&#8217;s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/orgs\/recips.php?id=D000000076&amp;type=P&amp;state=&amp;sort=A&amp;cycle=2010\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> list of contributions<\/a>\u00a0shows that Republicans and Democrats share equally in AT&amp;T&#8217;s gift-giving.\u00a0 Here are the leading recipients.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reid, Harry (D-NV) $30,000<\/li>\n<li>Crist, Charlie (I-FL) $22,100<\/li>\n<li>Blunt, Roy (R-MO) $11,500<\/li>\n<li>Guthrie, Steven Brett (R-KY) $11,500<\/li>\n<li>Jenkins, Lynn (R-KS) $11,500<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In Michigan, the same mixed pattern continues. AT&amp;T contributed equal amounts of cash to Democratic and Republican House members:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>John Dingell (<a href=\"http:\/\/dingell.house.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">D-MI<\/a>) $10,000<\/li>\n<li>Mark Schauer (D-MI) $10,000<\/li>\n<li>Fred Upton (<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20230103003222\/https:\/\/upton.house.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">R-MI<\/a>) $10,000<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.att.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110562\" title=\"ATT logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/att_logo-6.jpg?resize=70%2C68&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"ATT logo\" width=\"70\" height=\"68\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/att_logo-6.jpg?resize=75%2C73&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/att_logo-6.jpg?w=116&amp;ssl=1 116w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 70px) 100vw, 70px\" \/><\/a>In 2008, for example, the carrier spent $14,736,518 on lobbying federal and state office-seekers. But the company spread the loot around in a fairly bipartisan manner. although during the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama was clearly the telco&#8217;s favorite. Obama (D-IL) received $264,411 from AT&amp;T which surpassed his Republican challenger John McCain (R-AZ) who received $201,438 in AT&amp;T money according to the article from <em>Ars<\/em>.\u00a0<em> Ars<\/em> also noted that the carrier spent roughly the same amount on solid liberal Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) as it did on no-holds-barred libertarian Ron Paul (R-TX).<\/p>\n<h3>Lobbying ensure AT&amp;T always has friends<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.democrats.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-110564\" title=\"Democratic Party logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/democrat-logo.jpg?resize=70%2C62&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Democratic Party logo\" width=\"70\" height=\"62\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/democrat-logo.jpg?resize=75%2C67&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/democrat-logo.jpg?resize=150%2C134&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/democrat-logo.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 70px) 100vw, 70px\" \/><\/a><em>Ars technica<\/em> speculates that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/us-government-and-politics\/republican-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110566\" title=\"Republican Party logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Republican_elephant.gif?resize=71%2C53&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Republican Party logo\" width=\"71\" height=\"53\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Republican_elephant.gif?resize=75%2C56&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Republican_elephant.gif?resize=150%2C113&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 71px) 100vw, 71px\" \/><\/a>AT&amp;T&#8217;s political donation strategy is to spread the money evenly so that no matter what happens, AT&amp;T has friends on Capitol Hill and in the White House. The beneficiaries of the AT&amp;T gift-giving however, tend to be fairly established candidates, mostly incumbents.<\/p>\n<p>Undoubtedly AT&amp;T expects help from the politicians it contributes to. In the second quarter of this year, the company spent over $3,086,786.27 for lobbying activities on Capitol Hill (<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20160629224906\/http:\/\/disclosures.house.gov\/ld\/pdfform.aspx?id=300302527\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PDF<\/a>). Much of their time and energy went to a variety of telecom-related bills pending in the House or Senate. These included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>HR 1319\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/news\/2009\/10\/informed-p2p-user-act-to-clamp-down-on-filesharing-software.ars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Informed P2P User Act<\/a>. The bill would require P2P software providers to offer &#8220;clear and conspicuous&#8221; notice about the kinds of files the program can share. And no sneaky extra installs please, and the software can&#8217;t block consumers from deleting it. The proposed law has passed the House (PDF) and is awaiting committee action in the Senate.<\/li>\n<li>HR 3458\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/news\/2009\/08\/the-war-over-network-neutrality.ars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009<\/a>. Edward Markey&#8217;s (D-MA) legislation would write the FCC&#8217;s Open Internet policy statement into the Communications Act, barring ISPs from being allowed to &#8220;block, interfere with, discriminate against, impair, or degrade&#8221; access to any lawful content from any lawful application or device. It is currently sitting in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (<a href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20111227034331\/http:\/\/markey.house.gov\/images\/PDFs\/netneutralitybill.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PDF<\/a>), where it will doubtless stay until the Federal Communications Commission gives some sign about what it wants to do with its latest net neutrality proposals.<\/li>\n<li>HR 1019\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.govtrack.us\/congress\/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1019\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The State Video Tax Fairness Act of 2009<\/a> would prohibit states from taxing pay-TV services, including IP video services like <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20131031052803\/http:\/\/www.att.com\/u-verse\/explore\/what-is-u-verse.jsp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AT&amp;T&#8217;s U-Verse<\/a>. AT&amp;T is probably in favor of this one.<\/li>\n<li>S 773\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/index.php\/kill-switch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Cybersecurity Act of 2009<\/a>. The scariest part of this bill would have given the president the power to shut down the Internet in the event of a major cyber attack. That provision has been removed. Now the proposed law focuses on reorganizing the balkanized mess which is the federal government&#8217;s cybersecurity defense infrastructure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>RB-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegreenmarketoracle.com\/2011\/04\/social-media-is-mobilizing-youth-vote.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110570 size-medium\" title=\"Lobbying by ATT wins the carrier a degree of influence that goes way beyond its social benefit\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/social_media_apathy-2.gif?resize=118%2C150&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Lobbying by ATT wins the carrier a degree of influence that goes way beyond its social benefit\" width=\"118\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/social_media_apathy-2.gif?resize=118%2C150&amp;ssl=1 118w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/social_media_apathy-2.gif?resize=59%2C75&amp;ssl=1 59w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 118px) 100vw, 118px\" \/><\/a>Over the last two decades, AT&amp;T has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on political races, lobbying, and philanthropic giving. And because the telco is careful to spread those resources over a broad political and social landscape, they win the carrier a degree of influence that goes way beyond the numerical figures cited by <\/em><em>ars-technica.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Think about that as you vote on Tuesday. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Here is a link from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lwv.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">League of Women Voters<\/a> to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vote411.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">find your local polling place<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a title=\"Ralph Bach\" href=\"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/index.php\/new-resume\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ralph Bach<\/a> has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his <a title=\"Bach Seat\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bach Seat<\/a> about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ralph.bach.14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rbach48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>. Email the Bach Seat <a href=\"mailto:\/\/bach.seat@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ATT has a long history of lobbying both sides of the aisle to get what they want<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[3240,109,275,45,641],"class_list":["post-3824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-3240","tag-att","tag-lobbying","tag-politics","tag-t"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3824"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131569,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3824\/revisions\/131569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}