Key Congressional Aides

Momentum behind a rewrite of the 1996 Telecommunications Act has been building for several years. And while it is unclear whether a rewrite of the Telecom Act will pass the 109th Congress, interested companies have already spent millions of dollars on advocacy and lobbying in their drive to change the law to benefit their industries -- while House and Senate committees have put telecom reform on their agendas for this Congress. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is moving the quickest. Committee staffers say they have been working overtime on setting or revising rules for how telephone calls, video, and data services are delivered, whether over the Internet, through cable, or over phone lines. Predictably, the Senate Commerce Committee is moving at a more deliberate pace, staffers have been meeting with key industry officials to determine a policy approach, with a hearing likely sometime this summer. At the URL below are profiles of a half-dozen key aides on these two panels who will play instrumental roles in the forthcoming debate.
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Bara Vaida]