AT&T a 'heavy hitter' donor to US politicians

AT&T's USD 39 billion bid to buy Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile will face scrutiny from US regulators and oversight lawmakers, who will likely demand concessions to ensure open competition among mobile and Internet carriers.

In Congress, at least four committees are expected to hold oversight hearings, including the US House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce and Judiciary Committees and the same panels in the Senate.
AT&T is the biggest corporate "heavy hitter" and second overall on the list of company and other special-interest campaign giving, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). The company has given USD 46 million since 1989 and spent USD 3.6 million in contributions to federal candidates in the 2010 election cycle. It also spent roughly USD 15 million in lobbying in 2010 alone.
The company, a former monopoly broken up in 1984, has tended to give more to Republicans in the past two decades, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, though the figures go up and down with election cycles.
During the 2008 presidential election, AT&T gave about $201,000 to Republican candidate John McCain and USD 264,411 to Democratic candidate and eventual President Barack Obama.
The top recipients of AT&T's political action committee (PAC) and/or employee contributions during lawmakers' last election cycle among those in positions of power in Congress, according to the CRP, are:
* Republican House Speaker John Boehner, got USD 87,000, making the company his biggest donor;
* Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid received about USD 90,000, making the company his 10th-biggest donor;
* Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, got USD 45,000, her fifth-biggest donor;
* Senator Jay Rockefeller, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, received about USD 37,000 in contributions, making the company his biggest contributor;
* Representative Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, received USD 22,000, making the company his biggest contributor;
* Representative Fred Upton, Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, got USD 11,000, the lawmaker's 10th-biggest contributor.
Deutsche Telekom's PAC and/or employees also gave to several influential lawmakers from 2009-2010:
* Representative John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, got USD 10,000;
* Upton received USD 10,000