Another flurry of Capitol Hill lobbying disclosure forms...

Another flurry of Capitol Hill lobbying disclosure forms hit Friday ahead of the Monday filing deadline for the 2014 Q1 period. CenturyLink spent $1.01 million in this latest quarter, up from $920,000 in the same quarter last year. The telco lobbied regarding everything from FirstNet implementation to retransmission consent to telecom federal procurement rules. Charter Communications also spent more -- $720,000 in this Q1 compared with $650,000 in 2013’s Q1. The MPAA spent $330,000, drastically down from the $730,000 it spent lobbying over the same time last year. Motorola Solutions spent $540,000 lobbying, its priorities including FirstNet oversight meetings and patent litigation revamp. That spending is down from the $640,000 Motorola Solutions dropped in the same quarter last year. Sinclair spent $55,000 in this Q1. Bloomberg lobbied Congress on the enforcement of the merger conditions between Comcast and NBCUniversal and spent $100,000, down from the $140,000 it spent in 2013’s first quarter. Consumers Union lobbying spending went up from last year, $70,000 in this Q1 compared with $60,000 in last year’s. It lobbied on several telecom and media issues, from cramming to robocalls to in-flight cellphone use. Consumers Union also lobbied on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, which it opposes. Virtually all media stakeholders cited Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization among their lobbying priorities. The lion’s share of filings cites measures involving any overhaul of the FCC and the Communications Act.