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Google, Microsoft and Amazon all beefed up their lobbying spending, new disclosure forms show. Google was one of the tech set's biggest spenders, dropping $5.03 million between April and June, a $1.21 million hike from earlier in 2014 and an increase of $1.67 million from the same period in 2013.

The spending complements a new Washington headquarters that Google opened just steps from the Capitol in recent weeks, and could be a sign of increased focus on the Beltway for the company. Microsoft, meanwhile, spent an extra $260,000 on lobbying, bringing its second quarter totals up to $2.34 million. That’s still a decrease from the $2.96 million it spent during the second quarter in 2013. Amazon cracked $1 million in quarterly spending for the first time in its history, as the company put a new focus on drone regulation and postal reform. And Twitter, which is still a relative newcomer to Washington, jumped from $50,000 during the first three months of 2014 to $90,000.

Former Rep Howard Berman (D-CA) is lobbying on intellectual property issues for Hollywood’s top trade group, the Motion Picture Association of America.

MPAA signed a retainer with Berman, who is now a lobbyist with the K Street firm Covington & Burling, on June 30, and the news was made public in a recently released federal disclosure form.

Jon Leibowitz, former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, has been appointed to the board of directors for a website that deals in consumer data.

The site -- Reputation.com -- allows consumers to store their personal data. Companies can then offer incentives to get consumers to give them access to that data.

The US Chamber of Commerce is pressuring the Senate to take up and “expeditiously” pass a Senate cybersecurity bill that would encourage companies to share information about cyber threats with each other and the federal government.

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act “would strengthen the protection and resilience of businesses’ information networks and systems against increasingly sophisticated and malicious actors,” the Chamber said.

The bill -- from Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Vice-chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) -- passed through the Intelligence Committee earlier in July by a 12-3 vote.

Advocates for farmers are putting pressure on members of Congress to support a “clean” reauthorization of an expiring satellite TV law.

In July, the head of the South Dakota Farmers Union met with Sen John Thune (R-SD), the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, and other lawmakers to urge them not to change broader TV licensing rules while extending the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA).

Changes to current law could hurt rural customers, Doug Sombke told Sen Thune, and shouldn’t be included in the 2014 “must-pass” bill.

“Senator Thune and many rural lawmakers are very aware of the situation and are sympathetic to the difficult position a STELA with stripped-down consumer protections could cause their constituents in rural America,” said Sombke, who is the head of the National Farmers Union legislative committee.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers wants to make more space for Wi-Fi. Four legislators are introducing a companion bill to a Senate effort that would call for the Federal Communications Commission to study how certain bands of the nation’s airwaves can be set aside for wireless machines like tablets and laptops as well as garage door openers and other devices.

Together, lawmakers say they want to clear the way for future technologies. Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) said, “The Wi-Fi Innovation Act will make available the spectrum necessary to support the best new inventions and the jobs and prosperity these new discoveries will foster.” Rep Issa was joined on the bill by Reps Anna Eshoo (D-CA) Bob Latta (R-OH) and Doris Matsui (D-CA).

A group of security experts is encouraging the US agency tasked with creating technological security standards to reevaluate its relationship with the National Security Agency. T

he group said the National Institute of Stadards and Technology (NIST) should not defer to the NSA given reports that the NSA deliberately weakened encryption standards created by NIST.

The House approved a proposal to prohibit funding for the Federal Communications Commission to implement regulations preempting state laws on Internet access.

Rep Blackburn (R-TN) said her amendment to the fiscal 2015 Financial Services appropriations bill that would keep regulators from modifying state laws would limit federal overreach. Rep. José Serrano (D-NY) -- the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Financial Services subcommittee -- said the amendment would have the opposite effect.

"Whatever happened to localism or local control? This amendment means the federal government will tell every local citizen, mayor, and county council member that they may not act in their own best interests," Rep Serrano said. "Any such amendment is an attack on the rights of individual citizens speaking through their local leaders to determine if their broadband needs are being met."

AT&T and Comcast don’t want local governments creating Internet networks for their taxpayers. Such networks are “poorly run and ultimately bankrupt,” Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said.

Testifying at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on video competition, Cohen and AT&T Senior Executive Vice President John Stankey pushed back on pressure to let local governments create Internet networks, despite state laws that often ban them.

When pressed by community-broadband supporter Sen Ed Markey (D-MA), Cohen said that local governments should be allowed to create Internet networks, but Comcast “will advocate at the municipal government level that we think this is a mistake.”

House Republicans are pushing the Senate to delay the Obama Administration's plan for relinquishing America's oversight role over the Internet. Rep Greg Walden (R-OR) touted a House Republican bill that could pump the brakes on the Commerce Department’s plans to step back from its oversight role of the Internet’s Web address system and encouraged the Senate to take up the bill.

Rep Walden talked up the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act (DOTCOM Act), a bill from Rep John Shimkus (R-IL) that would require a congressional study before the administration could continue with its planned Internet oversight shift.