roundtable: New Figures: MORE TELECOM $$$ TO CONGRESS

roundtable: New Figures: MORE TELECOM $$$ TO CONGRESS

New Figures: MORE TELECOM $$$ TO CONGRESS

Anthony E. Wright (aewright@cme.org)
Thu, 26 Oct 1995 15:50:23 -0400 

Message-Id: <v02120d00acb588e97a82@[205.197.91.5]>
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 15:50:23 -0400
To: roundtable@cni.org, telecomreg@relay.doit.wisc.edu
From: aewright@cme.org (Anthony E. Wright)
Subject: New Figures: MORE TELECOM $$$ TO CONGRESS


NEW FIGURES: TELECOM $$$$ TO CONGRESS AND CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Yet Another Reason To Oppose the Telecommunications Bill

10/26/95: A conference committee started meeting yesterday morning,
Wednesday October 25, to reconcile the differences between House
and Senate versions of the telecommunications bill.

-----

Earlier this week, the Center for Responsive Politics released their
analysis of campaign contributions for the first half of this year.
The "Money in Politics Alert" (Vol 1. #19, 10/23/95) disclosed that from 
January through June of 1995, TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION PACS
CONTRIBUTED OVER $2 MILLION TO CONGRESS, with about one-third going to
members of the conference committee. Some excerpts from the alert:

  "Conference committee members share a common trait: [they] take
  substantial money from telecom PACs. The 34 House members
  of the conference committee received, on average, $18,824
  from telecom PACs in the first half of this year, compared
  to an average of $3,233 for all House members. The 11 Senate
  members of the conference committee received an average of
  $58,182 from these same PACs in the same time period, compared
  to an average contribution of $5,629 to all Senators....

   "In fact, the top two recipients of telecom PAC dollars in
  the whole Congress are the members with the most influence
  over the legislation. Senate Commerce Commitee Chairman
  LARRY PRESSLER (R-SD) RANKS FIRST, WITH $103,165, and House
  Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee Chairman
  JACK FIELDS (R-TX), RANKS SECOND, WITH $97,500."

The top five PAC benefactors to the conference committee members,
for the first half of this year, were:

        National Association of Broadcasters....$54,000
        Ameritech                               $41,365
        AT&T....................................$40,500
        BellSouth (through 2 separate PACs)     $37,250
        National Cable Television Association...$31,000

None of these figures include either individual contributions
made by executives of these corporations, or any contributions
made to the political parties, known as "soft money."

Quoted with permission from the Center for Responsive Politics
in Washington DC. info@crp.org. 202/857-0044.

-----

For more information on the bill, the names of the legislators
on the conference committee, and information on how to stop
this anti-consumer, anti-democracy, anti-Internet legislation,
check out the ad hoc Web Site Against the Telecom Bill, at
http://www.access.digex.net/~cme/bill.html.


--
Anthony E. Wright                       aewright@cme.org
Coordinator, Future of Media Project    Center for Media Education

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