Matsui's Leadership Role Attracts Telecom PAC Donations

Telecom Policy Report, Sept 22, 2004

What attracts telecom-related political action committee (PAC) donations to the campaign of Rep. Robert Matsui (D-Calif.) has little, if anything, to do with Matsui's grasp of telecom issues. Matsui is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which makes him a key member of the Democratic Party leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Matsui, who represents California's 5th Congressional District -- i.e., Sacramento -- also is a senior member of the powerful House Way's and Means Committee, a panel that is charged with, among other things, crafting the nation's tax laws.

Thus far during the current election cycle, PACs representing the interests of companies in the communications sector have donated more than $46,000 to Matsui's campaign war chest. (Numbers not reflected in the charts on this page include $6,500 in donations from print media PACs; $4,000 from PACs representing telecom equipment manufacturers; and $1,000 from electronic equipment PACs.)

So, what has Matsui done -- or at least tried to do -- for telecom? Two years ago, he was a major co-sponsor of H.R. 267, the proposed Broadband Internet Access Act. That bill was aimed at encouraging the deployment of high speed Internet access facilities in rural and underserved areas through the use of tax credits. Had it been enacted, it would have annually provided a 10 percent tax credit for five years to companies that deployed "current generation broadband" (i.e., DSL) technologies to both residents and businesses in rural or underserved urban areas. It also would have provided a 20 percent tax credit per year for five years to companies that invested in next-gen broadband services to all residential customers.

In 2000, Matsui and Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) introduced a bill that, had it been enacted, would have ended a 100-year-old tax on telecom services.

In pushing the measure, Matsui said the 3 percent federal excise tax, originally a temporary measure introduced to fund the Spanish-American War in 1898, had outlived its usefulness and, once repealed, would give 94 percent of U.S. households a tax cut.

Apparently, others in Congress felt the so-called "tax on talking" might still serve some useful purpose.

In 1998, Matsui, a third-generation Japanese American, played a pivotal role in helping shepherd the Japanese-American Redress Act through Congress. That bill resulted in the U.S. government issuing a formal apology for the World War II internment of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans, as well as a token compensation payment to the victims of that program. It is worth noting that Matsui himself was such a victim, albeit he was barely six months old when he and his family were interned by the federal government at the Tule Lake, Calif., camp in 1942.

Telco PAC Donations To Matsui, 2003-2004 Cycle
Telephone Utilities     $12,500
AT&T                    $2,500
BellSouth Corp          $1,000
SBC Communications      $5,000
Sprint Corp             $1,000
Verizon Communications  $3,000
Numbers are base on data released by the FEC on Sept. 13, 2004.

Electronic Media PAC Donations To Matsui, 2003-2004 Cycle
TV/Movies/Music                 $13,500
ASCAP                           $500
Motion Picture Assn of America  $2,000
Sony Pictures Entertainment     $1,500
Time Warner                     $1,000
Universal Studios               $1,000
Viacom Inc                      $3,000
Walt Disney Co                  $4,500
Numbers are base on data released by the FEC on Sept. 13, 2004.

Internet-Related PAC Donations To Matsui, 2003-2004 Cycle
Computers/Internet   $8,735
EDS Corp             $3,385
Hewlett-Packard      $350
Microsoft Corp       $5,000
Numbers are base on data released by the FEC on Sept. 13, 2004.

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