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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsComcast's Biggest Lobbyist Dodges Lobbying Rules By Pretending He's Usually Not Lobbying
Comcast's David Cohen is the company's most influential policy and lobbying guru, being described by the Washington Post in late 2012 as a "wonk rock star" in telecom circles. Cohen, whose official title at the company is simply Executive Vice President, has spent the last decade helping Comcast navigate a stream of significant mergers and acquisitions, most notably the company's 2011 acquisition of NBC Universal. In fact, Comcast's NBC acquisition went through largely thanks to a list of merger conditions that were proposed by Cohen himself, including the offering of $10 broadband to homes that qualify for the school lunch program (a program that resulted in protests in Comcast's hometown by folks who claimed the company made it intentionally difficult to actually qualify).
Cohen's a lobbyist in all the ways you'd expect a lobbyist to be, from hob knobbing with regulators and fund raising for President Obama, to penning a litany of awful editorials about bad policy in papers nationwide. Every month or so Cohen can be found busily pretending the U.S. broadband market is competitive, or pretending that the United States' mediocre showing in every meaningful global broadband stat actually means we're leading the world at broadband. Yet despite spending the lion's share of his time lobbying, Cohen doesn't have to follow the disclosure rules for lobbyists -- and hasn't since 2007 -- because he's able to simply pretend he doesn't spend much time lobbying:
"Only employees who spend 20 percent or more of their work on lobbying or related activities have to register in Washington. Comcast says Cohen, an executive vice president, doesn't reach that threshold as he puts in 18-hour days spread across a wide array of responsibilities....by not registering as a lobbyist, Cohen doesn't face limits on travel with lawmakers and doesn't have to file reports on his contributions to campaigns or lawmakers' pet foundations."
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/03/comcasts-biggest-lobbyist-dodges-lobbyin-0
Scuba
(53,475 posts)OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)the 10th and 18th top contributers were Time Warner ($442,271), and ComCast ($337,628), respectively.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/contrib.php?cycle=2012&id=N00009638
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/101685853#post9
http://www.thenation.com/article/178460/shadow-lobbying-complex
Where Have All the Lobbyists Gone?
On paper, the influence-peddling business is drying up. But lobbying money is flooding Washington, DC like never before. Whats going on?
Lee Fang
February 19, 2014 | This article appeared in the March 10-17, 2014 edition of The Nation.
<snip>
I returned to a computer later that day and pulled up the lobbyist-registration database to run the few names I had managed to write down. In theory, lobbyists are required to register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) to give the public some idea about who is attempting to influence the laws and regulations that govern us. To my surprise, however, Wamp and most of the others were nowhere to be found. (Palantirs corporate counsel, Matt Long, would not comment on what Wamp does for the company.)
Daschle, a policy adviser to a range of corporate interests and a close confidant of many top Democrats, has become one of the most famous unregistered lobbyists in the city. In fact, his escapades as a consigliere and go-between for business leaders and politicians, including President Obama, are so well known that among ethics watchdogs, the technicality in the law that allows lobbyists to evade registration has become known as the Daschle Loophole.
Officially, ShrinkingUnofficially, Exploding
On paper, the lobbying industry is quickly disappearing. In January, records indicated that for a third straight year, overall spending on lobbying decreased. Lobbyists themselves continue to deregister. In 2013, the number of registered lobbyists dipped to 12,281, the lowest number on file since 2002.
But experts say that lobbying isnt dying; instead, its simply going underground. The problem, says American University professor James Thurber, who has studied congressional lobbying for more than thirty years, is that most of what is going on in Washington is not covered by the lobbyist-registration system. Thurber, who is currently advising the American Bar Associations lobbying-reform task force, adds that his research suggests the true number of working lobbyists is closer to 100,000.
A loophole-ridden law, poor enforcement, the development of increasingly sophisticated strategies that enlist third-party validators and create faux-grassroots campaigns, along with an Obama administration executive order that gave many in the profession a disincentive to registerall of these forces have combined to produce a near-total collapse of the system that was designed to keep tabs on federal lobbying.
While the official figure puts the annual spending on lobbying at $3.2 billion in 2013, Thurber estimates that the industry brings in more than $9 billion a year. Other experts have made similar estimates, but no one is sure how large the industry has become. Lee Drutman, a lobbying expert at the Sunlight Foundation, says that at least twice as much is spent on lobbying as is officially reported.