In Senate, Kerry Maintained a Low Profile on High-Tech

A high-stakes effort by the Senate Commerce Committee to reshape U.S. technology policy over the last decade has included few contributions from its best-known member.

Sen. John F. Kerry, a committee member since 1986, has seldom taken a direct role in shaping the major legislative decisions on technology during the 1990s, according to former Federal Communications Commission officials, telecommunications executives and congressional staffers.

When Kerry did become active in industry issues, it was often to protect the jobs and other economic interests of high-tech firms in Massachusetts, which had become entangled in bureaucratic quagmires. In two of his most important efforts, Kerry intervened to help iron out complex regulatory issues involving Verizon, a campaign contributor and major Massachusetts employer.

But his work left a spotty record at a time when the federal government was attempting to recast the regulatory framework of a fast-changing and important sector of the economy.

“He was perhaps the only member of the committee I never met,” said Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a Republican FCC commissioner from 1997 to 2001. “Of all the members of commerce, he was one of the least engaged in telecom issues.”

Echoed former FCC Chairman William Kennard, a Democrat: “He certainly wasn’t the most actively engaged Democrat on the committee. He was certainly engaged in issues that concerned Massachusetts.”

Kerry’s Senate staffers disagree with those assessments and say he has been engaged in major issues. “He was an active player who played an important role in key issues,” said his chief of staff, David McKean.

Ivan Schlager, the former chief Democratic counsel on the committee, said Kerry played a key role behind the scenes in shaping policy. The senator, for example, provided support for advanced technology programs, Schlager said.

Kerry supporters note that he was identified by Business Week magazine as one of the 12 “tech savvy” members of Congress in 2000, though the story did not mention a single detail about Kerry and said he was a “newcomer to e-issues.”

Telecom analyst Blair Levin, FCC chief of staff from 1993 to 1997, recalled: “I don’t think I could have told you that Kerry was even on the Commerce Committee, except that I was reminded of it a few weeks ago.”

Kerry played a relatively minor role in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which deregulated the industry, and stayed on the sidelines in many subsequent battles over the policy, said Levin. He often took a back seat to his colleagues Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) and Sen. John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV (D-W. Va.).

“When I stop and think about it, I can’t think of anything the guy has ever done,” said longtime FCC observer Kenneth G. Robinson, who edits the Telecommunications Policy Review.

Kerry’s fundraising from the tech sector lags significantly behind other politicians’, including President Bush and Democrats who earlier sought the party’s nomination.

Communications giant SBC, for example, has given Bush $129,000 through its political action committee and individual employee contributions, while Kerry received $2,500 from employees. (Kerry has refused to accept PAC money.) And software giant Microsoft gave Bush $148,000, while Kerry pulled in $11,000.

Kerry received $21,000 from AOL Time Warner, compared with $45,000 for Bush. Even Verizon employees and executives have sharply curtailed contributions to Kerry from past years, giving him $4,000 for his presidential bid, while the company’s employees and its political action committees have given Bush $75,800.

Kerry may do better, now that he is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Some industry CEOs are raising money for Kerry -- among them the heads of Viacom, Centillium Communications, Qualcomm Inc. and the former president of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Assn., the trade group of the wireless industry.

Though Kerry has not been a leader in technology policy, he has still been criticized for his efforts on behalf of the industry.

The Center for Public Integrity has charged that “Kerry carries water” for telecommunications lobbyists and the industry, asserting he has backed many industry positions. Former presidential candidate Howard Dean picked up on that criticism and attacked Kerry during the early Democratic primaries. Now, Bush is making similar allegations.

When the senator went to bat for Verizon, his foremost concern was the economic effect in Massachusetts, his staff said.

Kerry got involved in 1999 and 2000 in trying to help resolve a snag in the $52-billion merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE that created Verizon. One of GTE’s highly valued assets was an operation known as the Backbone Network, a pioneer in the technology to carry large volumes of Internet traffic. Backbone Network not only provided 600 jobs in Massachusetts, it was seen as a wellspring of technology in the state.

But the deal faced a complication, because under federal law Bell Atlantic could not acquire a company providing long-distance service. To get around the hurdle, the companies proposed spinning off the Internet operation but retaining its ownership.

In May 2000, FCC Commissioner Susan Ness received a call from Kerry, in which he advocated for the company’s plan. Kerry had also phoned then-FCC Chairman Kennard to lobby for the merger in October 1999. He told both that the issue was important to the economy of Massachusetts.

“It was not unusual to receive calls from members of Congress,” said Ness, who left the FCC in 2001 and is now raising money for Kerry. “The only reason I vaguely remember this was because it was extremely rare for Kerry to make a phone call.”

Ultimately, the FCC allowed Verizon to spin off the GTE Internet business into a new company, Genuity. All of the lobbying, however, was in vain. Caught in the telecommunications bust of 2001, Genuity ended up in bankruptcy court by 2002.

Why did Kerry help Verizon? Verizon was among the largest private employers in his state, providing about 15,000 jobs, and has the largest corporate capital budget in the state, a Verizon executive said. But the company’s executives and employees also gave Kerry campaign contributions of $47,000 in March 2001, more money than any other politician received.

Most of the money was contributed at a fundraiser held by Verizon Chief Executive Ivan G. Seidenberg, who Kerry counted as a personal friend. The two men were introduced by former New England Telephone President Donald Reed, who has played hockey with Kerry. All three men also share a bond as Vietnam veterans. (Seidenberg is also a top fundraiser for Bush, one of the so-called Pioneers, who each raise a minimum of $100,000 for his campaign.)

Kerry’s friendship with Seidenberg is well known in telecom circles. “We’ve never counted him as a strong ally because of his friendship with the executives within Verizon,” said John Windhauser, president of the Assn. for Local Telecoms, which opposed the Verizon merger. But he added that Kerry is viewed as a lawmaker “open to hearing our arguments.”

Once the merger was approved, Kerry intervened for Verizon again. This time, he was among dozens of legislators who became involved in a dispute during 2002 between Verizon and the FCC over a wireless license.

The FCC was holding a $1.4-billion Verizon deposit on the license, but a federal court had barred the FCC from delivering the license because it had been originally auctioned to another company that had defaulted.

Verizon wanted to get out of the deal and demanded its money back. Dozens of House members sent letters to the FCC in 2002 calling for the agency to release Verizon and other companies. In late October 2002, Kerry, along with Hollings and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), also wrote a letter asking the FCC to release the companies.

By the end of the year, the FCC did. Kerry and other lawmakers were vindicated in January 2003, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the FCC had acted improperly by seizing the license while it was under the protection of the bankruptcy court.

Gregg Rothschild, Kerry’s former legislative director, said Kerry was instrumental in building a coalition within the Senate on the FCC dispute, though not to help Verizon. “Kerry was looking at it as more of a larger issue facing the wireless industry,” he said.

Rothschild said Kerry recognized the importance of broadband technology early, pushing for a tax credit in 2000 for companies willing to bring the Internet to rural areas. Kerry was a big supporter of the multibillion-dollar e-rate program, which wired thousands of rural and poor schools and libraries for high-speed Internet access. He also co-sponsored legislation in 2002 to delay a planned auction for airwaves used by the television industry, a measure supported both by the telecommunications industry and consumer groups.

“I think he has had enormous influence on technology policy,” Rothschild said. “He kind of had the ability to see around the corner when others didn’t.”