Brioché and Trahern join Comcast

Comcast spent $2.8 million on lobbying during the first half of this year and is bringing on two new DC hires already familiar with the Capitol. Joe Trahern, a former lobbyist for General Motors, will be Comcast's senior director of federal government affairs. Before GM, Trahern served as chief of staff to Rep Doris Matsui (D-CA), as a staffer for Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), and in political affairs at the White House under President Bill Clinton. Rudy Brioché joins as senior director of external affairs and public policy counsel. In that role, he will help define the company's public policy interests, which revolve around telecommunications law. He has served as a legal adviser to Federal Communications Commission member Jonathan Adelstein, now head of the Rural Utilities service and the Department of Agriculture, and before that worked for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).