NCTA was the fourth-biggest Capitol Hill lobbying spender of 2013, the Center for Responsive Politics said in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/1jJDNiJ). Q4 lobbying reports for 2013 were due last week and showed a spike in lobbying among many companies and associations with video interests, which observers told us likely involved preparation for the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization process happening this year (CD Jan 23 p7). The trade association of cable companies had “increased its spending on lobbying from $4.4 million in the third quarter to $6.6 million in the fourth, and jumped its annual total 5.1 percent, from $18.8 million in 2012 to $19.8 million in 2013,” said the center, a nonprofit that tracks lobbying and campaign finance issues. NCTA had spent $5.88 million in 2012’s Q4. The center, speaking broadly, identified “no discernible pattern in terms of industry or areas of interest among this group of top spenders,” based on the recent lobbying disclosure reports. “Likewise, in the high-tech world, Microsoft increased its lobbying expenditures by 29.7 percent year-to-year, from $8 million to $10.4 million, and Google (which had been rapidly packing on extra K Street help for the last few years) cut back 15.2 percent from $18.2 million in 2012 to $15.4 million in 2013,” the center said.

The Republican National Committee passed a resolution condemning National Security Agency surveillance, according to both its author and Diana Orrock, the Nevada national committeewoman who introduced it. The resolution was passed unanimously at the RNC meeting Friday in Washington. Conservative blogger Bryan Daugherty wrote the resolution, which had failed to pass at a previous RNC meeting. The resolution urges Republican members of Congress to back legislation amending Patriot Act Section 215, the state secrets privilege and the FISA Amendments Act “to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity, phone records and correspondence -- electronic, physical, and otherwise -- of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court,” it said (http://bit.ly/1d0Ts7b). Republicans in Congress should “call for a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying,” the resolution said. Members should try to stop the surveillance programs, it said. “Now, armed with the new information fresh from the Snowden leaks as well as growing support from headlines created by politicians like Rand Paul and his class-action lawsuit, Diana Orrock will once again ask the RNC to request that Republican lawmakers support the effort to renounce the NSA’s unconstitutional surveillance program,” Daugherty wrote on the conservative website LibertyRoll last week (http://bit.ly/1mDf4vZ), saying Orrock now had 12 co-sponsors in introducing the resolution. “She says she has resubmitted this Resolution for consideration ‘because in these times of losing a little bit more of our freedom incrementally every day, we must continue to fight for and protect our constitutionally guaranteed 1st and 4th Amendment rights. I will never be content to trade my constitutional rights for what the government wants us to believe is security.'” The resolution had unanimously passed the RNC Resolution Committee earlier last week, Daugherty said.

Many of the legislative initiatives in the Telecom Act of 1996 fell flat because lawmakers failed to understand “reasonable expectations of market structure, the effect of the legislation on stakeholder incentives,” and “the potential for technological change,” said Phoenix Center President Larry Spiwak in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/1dSIgQ5). The experiment of unbundling -- the “signature legislative initiative” in the act -- was “effectively over” when the FCC in 2005 issued its Triennial Review Order that “rendered most business plans based on unbundled network elements financially unviable,” Spiwak said. Congress’s attempt to create a retail market for set-top boxes similarly failed because such a market is inefficient, “and markets abhor inefficiency,” Spiwak said. Before passing legislation, Congress must understand the “underlying economics of the problem,” and have “reasonable and realistic expectations of market structure,” he said. Successful legislation must also “make sure that the incentives of all the stakeholders are aligned,” lest “sabotage against the paradigm” run rampant, he said.

The National Retail Federation is “committed” to fighting data breaches and other cyberattacks, said CEO Matthew Shay in a letter to congressional leadership Tuesday, according to an NRF news release (http://bit.ly/1in5yQg). The NRF called for a “uniform federal breach notification law,” the implementation of chip- and PIN-based encryption technology for credit and debit cards, and the passage of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-624), which allows commercial businesses to “quickly share information about threats.” Increasing the use of chip and PIN encryption will be an important tool for curbing data attacks, “but the fact remains that retailers cannot do this alone,” said Shay, in the letter.

One House Democrat prefers the approach of President Barack Obama’s surveillance review group to that of Obama himself. Following Obama’s talk on surveillance Friday, Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, announced the introduction of HR-3883, the Big Brother Is Not Watching You Act. The bill would direct the president to implement the 46 recommendations that the five-member review group offered Obama in December. “The Review Board’s proposals are a coherent and comprehensive plan to help eliminate ubiquitous and unnecessary domestic surveillance by the government, and should be treated as such,” Grayson said in a statement (http://1.usa.gov/19LdtUf). “They shouldn’t be implemented in a piecemeal fashion.” The legislation has no co-sponsors and has been referred to the committees on Intelligence, Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs.

Attorney General Eric Holder will testify before Congress on Jan. 29, the Senate Judiciary Committee said, announcing its Justice Department oversight hearing. The hearing will be at 10 a.m. in 226 Dirksen. Holder is the only witness listed. “The oversight hearing will be just weeks after President [Barack] Obama charged the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence with considering reforms to government surveillance programs, a top priority” for Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and other committee members, the notice said. Expect “a range of issues” to be discussed, it said.

Patent lawyers from big Internet companies discussed patent assertion entities with senators on Capitol Hill on Thursday, said a statement from the Internet Association, which represents Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google and other major Internet companies. “Senators must understand the urgency of stopping patent abuse, this is a Main Street problem,” said Michael Beckerman, Internet Association CEO. With House passage of the Innovation Act, the Internet Association’s “member patent counsels” want to “ensure that the momentum continues and passage of an effective bill occurs” in the Senate, said the group.

The FCC must “act quickly to preserve net neutrality,” Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1b8AOdA). Franken blasted the recent Verizon v. FCC court decision that vacated the FCC net neutrality rules. “I am writing to urge you to take any and all appropriate actions necessary to preserve net neutrality,” he said. “Fortunately, the court clearly stated that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 empowers the FCC to promulgate rules governing broadband providers’ treatment of Internet traffic.” The agency thus has the legal authority and “must exercise that authority to implement new rules that will preserve access to the Internet,” Franken said.

Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., introduced a spectrum bill Thursday, with no text or details provided or given upon request. The title of HR-3916 says its purpose is to “amend the Communications Act of 1934 to promote the expansion of spectrum-based services to exceptionally hard-to-serve populations in unserved and underserved geographic locations.” The bill lists no co-sponsors and was referred to the House Commerce Committee. The bill will also be known as the Promoting Rural Broadband Act of 2014, according to the text provided by his spokesman. It’s part of a broader economic package of bills and ideas focused on the congressman’s home district, the spokesman added. “This legislation directs the Federal Communications Commission to promote the expansion of spectrum-based services, like broadband to extremely hard to serve populations in unserved and underserved geographic locations,” Kilmer said in a document dated Friday pegged to the economic initiative. “It is critically important that our homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals have access to the communication networks that they require.”

Congress is all caught up in the court issues being debated in the Aereo case, now heading to the Supreme Court, said a Congressional Research Service report dated Monday (http://bit.ly/Ll4dLX). “Several bills introduced during the 113th Congress would implicate the various parties in the Aereo and FilmOn cases,” CRS said. “The Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013, introduced by Senator John McCain, [R-Ariz.,] would impact the market in which companies such as Aereo, FilmOn, and the broadcasters are competing.” It would permit cable providers to offer a la carte service and “deny broadcasters their spectrum licenses if they moved big event programming from broadcast television to cable,” it said. “Many of the Aereo plaintiffs have threatened this action in response to Aereo’s success in the courts.” CRS also pointed to the Consumer Choice in Online Video Act, introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. The bill “contains provisions that would address antenna rental services, such as Aereo, specifically,” and “would exempt these services from paying certain retransmission fees,” CRS said. Legislative attorney Emily Lanza wrote the report.