Telecom Firms Gird for Lobbying War

The Federal Communications Commission's recent effort to ensure it can police Internet providers has prompted new interest in Congress toward rewriting the nation's aging telecommunications laws for the Internet era. The rewrite won't happen right away -- and could stretch on for more than a year -- but phone and cable companies are already gearing up for a lobbying battle that is likely to be expensive.

It took Congress over a decade to complete the last major rewrite of the nation's telecommunications laws in 1996. In 2005, Republican lawmakers tried to tweak the laws again to modernize them for the Internet age, but that effort died a year later in the Senate. Because the phone and cable industries are among the most heavily regulated, they tend to spend heavily on political contributions and lobbying. In 2009, the telecom industry spent a combined $43 million on lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. AT&T spent almost $15 million in 2009. Lobbying and political contributions tend to surge when Congress is considering major legislation. When Congress was considering telecom legislation in 2006, phone and cable companies spent a combined $59 million on lobbying.