• On behalf of the Rural Broadband Alliance, we sought support for S. 1858, the Rural Broadband Investment Act of 2013, passage of which would direct the Federal Communications Commission to suspend and revise portions of the Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that revised Universal Service Fund distribution to rural carriers. The legislation is also intended to encourage renewed investment by rural rate-of-return carriers in deployment of broadband infrastructure in rural areas which will foster the provision of broadband service to rural consumers. We also responded to a general request to the public from the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce for comments on a white paper on universal service issued on August 22, 2014; our comments focused on the need to maintain the universal service principles codified in Section 254 of the Communications Act.

Duration: November 21, 2012 to December 31, 2014

General Issues: Telecommunications

Spending: about $0 (But it's complicated. Here's why.)

It can be tricky to figure out how much an organization spent on a particular lobbying engagement. The law only requires lobbyists to report the amount they were paid for federal lobbying each quarter rounded to the nearest $10,000—and if it's less than $3,000 in a given quarter (or less than $13,000 for organizations with in-house lobbyists), they don't have to disclose it at all. Plus, some organizations include spending that doesn’t belong in the report—for instance, money spent lobbying state governments or other legal work.

Agencies lobbied since 2012: U.S. Senate, House of Representatives