Telecoms spending big on Capitol Hill

In an obvious development, it turns out the telecom industry has been quite generous to members of Congress these past few years. One could make the case that this compromises Congress’ objectivity in regards to FISA extensions — the so-called ‘Protect America Act — with telecom immunity.

The 68 senators who voted “yes” on the legislation collected, on average, $21,200 from telephone utility companies from 2005 through 2007 (this includes contributions to 2008 presidential campaigns). The 29 who voted “no” collected an average of $13,000. The trend holds for contributions from AT&T and Verizon—both have given more to senators who voted for the bill that would shield them from costly lawsuits. In the 2006 election cycle and since, senators who support immunity have received $7,100 from AT&T and $5,900 from Verizon, on average, compared to $4,800 from AT&T to those who oppose protecting the industry and $4,400 from Verizon.

The House version of the bill, passed last November, conflicts with the Senate’s legislation; it would prevent the telephone companies from getting out of the lawsuits and force the administration to reveal more details about the secretive wiretapping program. The chief sponsor of the House bill, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), has received only $4,000 from telephone utilities in this election cycle, though he received $19,100 for his last re-election campaign and the industry has been Conyers’s seventh-largest donor over his career. The lead sponsor of the Senate bill, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), on the other hand, has received $49,600 from telephone utilities this cycle—more than twice what he received in 2006. AT&T has been Rockefeller’s second-largest contributor in his career.

This week members of the Senate and House intelligence and judiciary committees have met to try to resolve the differences between the two bills. Many congressional Republicans have said they’ll only support the Senate-passed version and have been foregoing some of the meetings set up to reach a compromise. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Wednesday, however, that the House will not take up the compromise measure this week. Republicans on the two House committees have received, on average, $18,000 from the telecom industry in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, while Democrats have collected $9,500. Of the 435 members of the House, 419 received money from the telephone utility industry in the 2006 and/or 2008 election cycle, with an average of $14,100 to each member.