Boucher makes plans for telecom reform while ramping up re-election campaign

A Q&A with Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA).

He has big plans this year. He wants to reform the nearly $8 billion-a-year fund to subsidize Internet services. He also wants to enact the first online privacy legislation. That's not all--he also wants to push the Spectrum Inventory Act through the House and hold a number of oversight hearings on the FCC's National Broadband Plan. All the while, Boucher will be campaigning against a Republican challenger for his seat. As chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, he has a lot to accomplish in Washington while also defending the seat he has held for 28 years. He is the 10th most powerful member of the House, but he faces a tough race in southern Virginia. Republicans have attacked him for his support of cap-and-trade legislation, despite his district's roots in coal-mining. And critics say he has been in Washington so long he has lost touch with his constituency.