Ryan's House Speakership Kicks Off With Telecom-Friendly Senior Hire

The first days under House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., should encourage telecom industry stakeholders, Washington veterans told us. The 45-year-old Ryan, a 2012 vice presidential candidate and most recently Ways and Means Committee chairman, kept a low profile on telecom issues since election to the House in 1998. But his focus on tax and regulation has often led to backing certain telecom measures over the years, with focuses ranging from E-rate to USF to the fairness doctrine. He assumed the speakership after the retirement of Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, at October’s end, following weeks of GOP leadership uncertainty, and a crucial hire in Ryan’s leadership office showcases strong ties to industry.

Since becoming speaker, Ryan appointed as chief of staff former telecom and media industry lobbyist David Hoppe. Public Citizen is petitioning in protest: “Not even John Boehner -- one of K Street’s greatest allies -- had the temerity to put a Big Business lobbyist in charge of his office."

Hoppe’s former clients over the last decade include Amazon, with lobbying this year on the Marketplace Fairness Act; AT&T, for which he lobbied on net neutrality, USF and spectrum; the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, funded by Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson; Discovery Communications; First Data Corp.; Hewlett-Packard; Intel; Microsoft; NAB, for which he lobbied this year on the Local Radio Freedom Act and ad tax issues; NBCUniversal, in years before its purchase by Comcast; Qualcomm; Sony; USTelecom, which hired him to lobby on broadband, cybersecurity and net neutrality issues; and Verizon. Hoppe, a Capitol Hill veteran who was chief of staff for former Senate GOP Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., is a former Quinn Gillespie president and more recently lobbied at Squire Patton and Hoppe Strategies. He's a former Heritage Foundation vice president.

“He has a breadth of experience that’s fairly unusual,” said former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., in an interview. “He was very knowledgeable.” Hoppe was chief staffer for Lott during his years in the Senate and until weeks ago lobbied alongside Lott, who now co-chairs the Squire Patton public policy practice. Lott praised Hoppe’s “really good understanding” of telecom issues, saying the firm represents both AT&T and NAB: “He understands all sides of those equations, too.” Lott mentioned working on telecom issues on the Hill with Hoppe, back when he was on the Commerce Committee in the 1990s. “In my time, during that era, was when we did the big telecommunications reform,” Lott said, referring to the 1996 Telecom Act. “Dave was involved as my top staff director.” Lott referred to meetings at the time with such industry stakeholders as AT&T and Verizon and said the two also did “a lot of telecommunications work” later when he was majority leader.

“That’s one of the many assets” Hoppe brings to Ryan’s speakership, Lott said of the telecom knowledge. He suggested Hoppe would help restore an ability to operate: “That’s what Congress has been missing.” Hoppe has a “very good reputation all over the Senate,” Lott believes, and can also help facilitate the movement of telecom legislation through Congress in the next year or two. Lott judged that likely, given what he criticized as “an out-of-control FCC doing things that are probably exceeding their authority.”

Hoppe is “a doctrinaire conservative, straight down the line,” said Jim Manley, who directs the Quinn Gillespie communications practice now and knew him in earlier years when both were Hill staffers. Manley was a key spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., during his time as majority leader and knew Hoppe from his time working for Lott. Hoppe is “an institutionalist” and “spent years working in the conservative movement,” Manley said. “It’s important to have someone in House leadership who understands the rhythms and rules of the Senate, and David does.” Hoppe is close with Sharon Soderstrom, chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and a former Lott staffer, both Manley and Lott said. Manley called Hoppe’s style “low key," that of a “quintessential staffer” who avoids being quoted in the news media and “puts in long hours.” Hoppe’s status as “a policy guy” bodes well for the telecom industry, given his past lobbying clients, Manley remarked.

Thune, Walden Encouraged

Leading Republicans involved in telecom policy see promise in the Ryan speakership, pointing to his interest in economic growth and policy detail.

Ryan “is a growth Republican,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters last week. “He believes like many of us do that the way you solve a lot of the problems in this country is to get that rate of growth up at a higher level. So what are those things that we can do that can achieve that?” That means energy policy, tax and regulatory policy, Thune explained: “Those are the types of … policies that are going to create the favorable conditions for economic growth,” Thune said. “He’s going to be very focused on what are things we can be doing policy-wise that will create the conditions that are favorable to economic growth.”

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., is “looking forward” to Ryan’s proposed changes, “where the committees will be given a little different authorities and more opportunity to work,” he said after Ryan’s ascension during an episode of The Lars Larson Show. “I always felt our best work is done in the committee process that’s open and transparent. As opposed to when it gets into a terminal place with a huge mini-crisis-created last-minute deals get done. It’s just not the way to legislate.”

The speakership is especially influential in determining committee chairs, with five votes on the steering committee. Walden was widely seen as a close ally to Boehner, who could have helped Walden in rumored future Commerce Committee leadership aspirations (see 1509280058). Walden, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, enthusiastically backed Ryan’s speaker run in recent weeks and touted history between them. “I’ve known Paul for 17 years,” Walden said, praising Ryan’s status as a “policy wonk” and predicting a strong “pro-growth” agenda “from a solid policy footing.”

E-Rate Killer?

None of the 108 pieces of sponsored legislation to Ryan's name over the last 17 years directly addresses telecom issues. But more is apparent in the 1,066 bills Ryan co-sponsored. This year, Ryan is one of the 191 co-sponsors of the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (HR-235) and one of the 221 co-sponsors of the Local Radio Freedom Act (HConRes-17). He backed earlier incarnations, too.

Past legislation that Ryan favored often dealt with taxation and streamlining of regulation. One of the first bills that Ryan backed would have killed the E-rate program -- the E-Rate Termination Act (HR-692), introduced in February of 1999, a month after Ryan began his first term in the House. That GOP-backed legislation, which Ryan signed on to four and a half months into his first year on the Hill, never advanced beyond committee. Ryan didn’t back subsequent iterations of that bill, such as HR-1252 in 2003. By 2014, Ryan unveiled a House Budget Committee report produced under his chairmanship called “The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later” that touted E-rate’s benefits: “The E-Rate program has been successful in providing American students access to telecommunication and information services,” it said, despite noting certain struggles with waste, fraud and abuse. The report also questioned Lifeline’s effectiveness and outlined shortcomings of waste, fraud and abuse but mentioned some positives: “When looking at access, evidence suggests that Lifeline has helped increase the availability of voice service to low-income consumers.”

USF occasionally caught Ryan's attention. In 2007, he supported the unsuccessful Universal Service Reform Act (HR-2054), which would have made several changes to USF such as including high-speed broadband within the definition of the service and providing contribution limits. In 2003, he supported the Universal Service Fairness Act (HR-1582), which would have made such changes as limits per state support and on the total support for all states, had it passed.

Ryan joined Hill Republicans to oppose the fairness doctrine through the Broadcaster Freedom Act, introduced in multiple Congresses. It never advanced but would have forbidden the FCC “from having the authority to require broadcasters to present opposing viewpoints on controversial issues of public importance,” its text said. The FCC eliminated the doctrine.

Last Congress, Ryan backed the bipartisan Standard Data and Technology Advancement Act (HR-948), as with earlier versions. The bill never advanced but sought to “establish consistent requirements for the electronic content and format of data used in the administration of certain human services programs under the Social Security Act.” In 2009, he backed another unsuccessful measure known as the Modernize Our Bookkeeping In the Law for Employee's Cell Phone Act (HR-690), which would have revamped the Internal Revenue Code to nix cellphones' property classification. He co-sponsored the Republican-backed, unsuccessful HR-3138 in 2007, which would have updated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act electronic surveillance definition, and the Internet Consumer Protection Act of 2007 (HR-1077), which would have made “permanent the ban on state and local taxation of Internet access and on multiple or discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce.” He backed the Telephone Excise Tax Repeal Act (HR-1898) in 2005. Five years before that, he backed the House-passed Independent Telecom Consumer Enhancement Act (HR-3850), which sought to define small telecom companies and force the FCC “to separately evaluate the burden that any proposed regulatory, compliance, or reporting requirements” that these companies would face compared to bigger ILECs. That same year, he backed the Radio Broadcasting Preservation Act, which also passed the House but nothing beyond, and would have addressed low-power FM stations.

Voting Against Net Neutrality

Ryan's votes also illustrate some of his stances on telecom, tech and broader stances within the caucus.

Ryan opposed FCC net neutrality order regulations. He voted with virtually all fellow Republicans in April 2011 to favor HJRes-37, the ultimately unsuccessful GOP Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval seeking to dismantle the 2010 net neutrality order. In 2014, Ryan voted for the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361) in the 303-121 passage vote. This legislation overhauled surveillance law to shift storage of metadata from the federal government to the phone companies. He defended phone companies for government surveillance cooperation: “In the days after September 11th, telecom companies stepped forward during our nation’s time of need, providing much needed assistance to help keep us safe,” Ryan said in 2008. “Those noble acts deserve admiration -- not lawsuits.” He also opposed SOPA in 2012: “While HR-3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, attempts to address a legitimate problem, I believe it creates the precedent and possibility for undue regulation, censorship and legal abuse,” Ryan said at the time.

Ryan favored bigger telecom bills throughout his House career. He voted for the Communications, Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act in a largely partisan split and against the defeated net neutrality amendment from Ed Markey, then a Democratic member of the House and now a senator representing Massachusetts. That was the 2006 centerpiece that Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, produced when launching his telecom rewrite, and it passed the House but never the Senate. The Markey amendment was one of the first times net neutrality legislation came before Congress. Ryan was one of the original co-sponsors of what’s commonly referred to as the controversial “Tauzin/Dingell bill,” the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001. He voted for the measure -- which purported to “deregulate the Internet and high speed data services” -- during its 2002 House passage, and it stalled afterward.

In 2007, Ryan sent a letter complaining to then-Chairman Kevin Martin about cable operators that refused to carry the NFL and Big Ten networks. “I would urge the FCC to consider changing its rules to facilitate appointment of an arbitrator in disputes like the ones involving the NFL Network and the Big Ten Network, so they can be resolved more quickly (preferably through negotiation between the parties) and with consumers’ interests foremost in mind,” Ryan told Martin. Of the 1,348 letters of congressional correspondence the FCC lists going back to September 2009, Ryan’s name is not among lead filers of Hill letters a single time.

Ryan singled out the former Ma Bell when slamming market problems. “The most infamous manifestation of crony capitalism during these days was Ma Bell,” which “locked arms with the federal government to create a legalized telephone monopoly,” leaving an industry that for decades “languished in mediocrity,” Ryan said in an op-ed in Forbes in December 2009. He lauded the 1984 court-ordered breakup of AT&T and subsequent competition. “While far from perfect, the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed for competition and innovation to be unleashed,” Ryan said. “The robust technological and digital revolution that followed brought Americans faster voice, video and Internet services at lower costs.”

Observers said Ryan’s leadership will benefit from a telecom veteran like Hoppe on board. “It’s definitely helpful to telecom and broadcast companies that Ryan and his top staffer have some depth on communications issues," Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant said. "But telecom will always take a back seat to things like healthcare and taxes, and getting any telecom bill through Congress will almost certainly require bipartisan support."

“He took my main man Hoppe, for goodness’ sake!” Lott told us. “I don’t know how I’m going to replace Dave.”