AT&T Cheerleading Squad for Merger: Nearly 100 Lobbyists
By CECILIA KANG and ERIC LIPTONOCT. 25, 2016
WASHINGTON — From the political right and the left, AT&T’s $85 billion bid for Time Warner has provoked pushback. But AT&T, in addition to its billions of dollars of capital, has another arsenal at its disposal: one of the most formidable lobbying operations in Washington, if AT&T dedicated all this energy to the consumers that buy their services, would be a successful company, instead CEO randall Dtevenson has list of nearly 100 registered lobbyists already on retainer in 2016 includes former members of Congress. AT&T is the biggest donor to federal lawmakers and their causes among cable and cellular telecommunications companies, with its employees and political action committee sending money to 374 of the House’s 435 members and 85 of the Senate’s 100 members this election cycle. That adds up to more than $11.3 million in donations since 2015, four times as much as Verizon Communications — that it will certainly too much asking to weigh in again in Washington, as it tries to get the merger approved, like the DTV Fiasco
“We have seen our fair share of deals,” AT&T’s general counsel, David R. McAtee II, said in an interview. “Our job is informing consumers what a good development this is for them.”