NCTA was the fourth-biggest Capitol Hill lobbying spender...

NCTA was the fourth-biggest Capitol Hill lobbying spender of 2013, the Center for Responsive Politics said in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/1jJDNiJ). Q4 lobbying reports for 2013 were due last week and showed a spike in lobbying among many companies and associations with video interests, which observers told us likely involved preparation for the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization process happening this year (CD Jan 23 p7). The trade association of cable companies had “increased its spending on lobbying from $4.4 million in the third quarter to $6.6 million in the fourth, and jumped its annual total 5.1 percent, from $18.8 million in 2012 to $19.8 million in 2013,” said the center, a nonprofit that tracks lobbying and campaign finance issues. NCTA had spent $5.88 million in 2012’s Q4. The center, speaking broadly, identified “no discernible pattern in terms of industry or areas of interest among this group of top spenders,” based on the recent lobbying disclosure reports. “Likewise, in the high-tech world, Microsoft increased its lobbying expenditures by 29.7 percent year-to-year, from $8 million to $10.4 million, and Google (which had been rapidly packing on extra K Street help for the last few years) cut back 15.2 percent from $18.2 million in 2012 to $15.4 million in 2013,” the center said.