The Consumer Electronics Association will financially back the Log Cabin Republicans, it said in a news release Monday. “Our visible announcement proves that trade associations want lawmakers and policies that recognize the economic value of hiring the best and brightest minds, regardless of sexual orientation,” CEO Gary Shapiro said in a statement (http://bit.ly/RFXzDn), calling the support “groundbreaking.” CEA said it’s the first tech group to financially support the Log Cabin Republicans, which counts as members “gay conservatives and allies who support fairness, freedom, and equality for all Americans."

Spending on Capitol Hill lobbying is on the rise, based on Q1 disclosure forms submitted Monday. The deadline for Q1 filings was Monday, and several companies and trade associations had not filed by our deadline. AT&T did spend less, however: $3.67 million in Q1, down from the $4.26 million it spent in 2013’s Q1. Sprint noted spending of $784,707, a jump from the $666,558 it spent in the same time period last year. Cox Enterprises spent far more this Q1 compared with last year’s -- $910,000 compared with $790,000, lobbying heavily on media issues such as retransmission consent, media ownership and unlicensed spectrum. Clear Channel Communications spent $1.21 million, slightly up from the $1.17 million it spent during the same period last year. It lobbied on patent overhaul as well as FCC structure and oversight issues and video concerns like broadcast indecency enforcement. Harris Corp. spent $786,436, also up slightly from the $768,570 it spent during that quarter in 2013. Harris focused on the IP transition and the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers spent $289,639 in Q1, up from last year’s $255,763, and lobbied against changes to retransmission consent rules. Writers Guild of America-West spent $120,000, up by $20,000 from what it spent this time last year. It focused on satellite reauthorization, net neutrality, the FCC’s spectrum auction, retransmission consent and the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger. Qualcomm paid Covington & Burling $690,000 for Q1 lobbying on patent overhaul and communications issues generally, although its own filing -- which in the past involves quarterly spending upwards of a million -- was not submitted by our deadline. In 2013’s Q1, Qualcomm paid Covington & Burling $300,000.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., backs MGW Network’s application for $4.6 million in funding from the FCC’s rural broadband experiments initiative pegged to the Connect America Fund. He sent FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler a letter dated March 12, released Friday (http://bit.ly/1kJystp), saying that and calling MGW a “third-generation, family-owned telecommunications company” that hopes to provide broadband service to some Virginia residents for the first time. He wrote a separate letter (http://bit.ly/1lf8bWt) backing the BARC Electric Cooperative, serving Bath, Alleghany and Rockbridge counties in Virginia, and its plan to deploy fiber-to-the-premises.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler reassured Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., that he plans to end quantile regression analysis in determining high-cost USF support, as he’s previously told Congress. “I directed the Wireline Competition Bureau to prepare an Order for the Commission’s consideration that would eliminate the WRA,” Wheeler said in an April 11 letter, released Friday (http://bit.ly/1mkg5v2). “That Order, which will also address SNA [safety net additive] support, is now on circulation for my colleagues’ consideration at our April 2014 open agenda meeting.” Landrieu worried that the November 2011 USF order, which instituted quantile regression analysis, contained rules that “may hamper investment” in Louisiana, as she wrote in a Feb. 25 letter to Wheeler.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., is worried about smartphone theft. Franken, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Privacy Subcommittee, wrote FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler about his concerns in a Jan. 21 letter, which Wheeler answered April 11, released Friday (http://bit.ly/QtDEX5). Franken said there’s no “silver bullet” fix to the problem, suggesting strengthening a stolen-phones database. Franken has contacted CTIA about the use of kill-switch technology and the Justice Department about enforcement actions, he said. Wheeler agreed with Franken that the issue is “a global concern” and laid out the agency’s recent steps to address the problem and the state of the stolen-phones database.

Congress has a role in deciding whether to ban in-flight cellphone conversations, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told several lawmakers in an April 8 letter, released Friday (http://bit.ly/1i2V96m). He responded to a letter from several House members in December protesting the FCC’s announcement that it would examine whether in-flight cellphone conversation should be banned, looking at the issue from a technical perspective. Wheeler cited the legislation in the House and Senate that would ban such conversation. “The Commission is ready to offer technical assistance on these bills or any similar legislation,” Wheeler said. The FCC welcomes comment from all engaged stakeholders on this issue, Wheeler stressed.

Another flurry of Capitol Hill lobbying disclosure forms hit Friday ahead of the Monday filing deadline for the 2014 Q1 period. CenturyLink spent $1.01 million in this latest quarter, up from $920,000 in the same quarter last year. The telco lobbied regarding everything from FirstNet implementation to retransmission consent to telecom federal procurement rules. Charter Communications also spent more -- $720,000 in this Q1 compared with $650,000 in 2013’s Q1. The MPAA spent $330,000, drastically down from the $730,000 it spent lobbying over the same time last year. Motorola Solutions spent $540,000 lobbying, its priorities including FirstNet oversight meetings and patent litigation revamp. That spending is down from the $640,000 Motorola Solutions dropped in the same quarter last year. Sinclair spent $55,000 in this Q1. Bloomberg lobbied Congress on the enforcement of the merger conditions between Comcast and NBCUniversal and spent $100,000, down from the $140,000 it spent in 2013’s first quarter. Consumers Union lobbying spending went up from last year, $70,000 in this Q1 compared with $60,000 in last year’s. It lobbied on several telecom and media issues, from cramming to robocalls to in-flight cellphone use. Consumers Union also lobbied on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, which it opposes. Virtually all media stakeholders cited Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization among their lobbying priorities. The lion’s share of filings cites measures involving any overhaul of the FCC and the Communications Act.

Public Knowledge released a five-part plan it hopes will be a guide for Congress as it works on legislation aimed at curbing patent litigation abuse. That legislation should take into account the needs of all patent owners, rather than just large corporations, Public Knowledge said in the plan. Legislation should also include provisions that will improve the clarity of patents, target bad actors within the U.S. patent system, avoid “gamesmanship” in patent litigation where a party defeats its opponent by increasing litigation costs, and maintain competition in the “innovation economy,” Public Knowledge said in the plan (http://bit.ly/1maGEoE). The Senate Judiciary Committee is to consider a compromise version of the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) after the April 14-25 recess. The House passed a similar bill, the Innovation Act (HR-3309), in December.

T-Mobile spent slightly more on lobbying Capitol Hill in Q1 of 2014 than in the same period the year before. It spent $1.47 million this year, compared to $1.3 million last year. It spent slightly less in 2013’s Q4, at $1.43 million. That spending does not include outside lobbying firms T-Mobile has hired. Lobbying disclosure forms aren’t due until Monday, but several lobbying firms, companies and industry associations have begun filing this week (CD April 17 p9), although mostly firms rather than companies and associations so far. Other carriers have not filed their spending reports, though some lobbying firms hired on their behalf have. T-Mobile lobbied in favor of S-543, the Wireless Tax Fairness Act and HR-3086, the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, it said. It lobbied widely on the spectrum provisions of the FCC National Broadband Plan as well as on consumer privacy and protection issues and “acquiring additional spectrum for commercial use before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees,” the carrier added. The American Cable Association’s lobbying spending stayed steady in Q1, with $130,000 spent on its own lobbying, as in multiple previous quarters. It again paid $100,000 to the Alpine Group, as it had in Q4 of 2013. ACA employed Alpine in Q1 of 2013 as well but paid the firm only $60,000 then.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asked Netflix whether the Comcast acquisition of Time Warner Cable would hurt Internet consumers, in a letter he sent to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Wednesday. He said “Netflix is uniquely positioned to gauge the risks posed by this deal,” so he asked Hastings to “share Netflix’s views, particularly as they pertain to certain testimony provided by Comcast during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s April 9 hearing on the proposed acquisition.” Hastings has criticized Comcast about the paid peering deal the two companies reached earlier this year and sought stronger net neutrality protections applied to such deals. Comcast has dismissed the concerns and said they're unrelated to net neutrality. Franken agrees with Netflix that the peering agreement may suggest problems and said he worries that the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal may create anticompetitive effects in the content market. “Comcast’s recent interconnection arrangement with Netflix seems to illustrate my point,” Franken said. “My understanding is that Comcast’s consumers and the press documented problems streaming Netflix videos over Comcast’s broadband networks and that Netflix ultimately had to pay Comcast an undisclosed sum to resolve the issue. If incidents like this become the norm -- as I fear is more likely if Comcast is allowed to acquire Time Warner Cable -- it would have serious implications for consumers.” During the recent hearing, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said the paid peering deal was Netflix’s idea, but a Netflix spokesman told us the company seeks out agreements at no cost to either party (CD April 11 p10). The spokesman said late Wednesday that Netflix had received Franken’s letter and plans to respond. Franken asked Hastings if the deal would “increase Comcast’s ability to extract payments from non-affiliated entities as a condition of access to Comcast’s broadband Internet consumers” and what Netflix makes of how Comcast described such peering agreements.