Players to watch: Technology

by Julian Hattem, Kate Tummarello - 09/09/14 10:57 AM ET

Welcome to The Hill’s Players to Watch special report for fall 2014.

The lawmakers, administration officials and power brokers listed here will play enormous roles in the policies and politics that take place over the next several months.

There are many big questions facing the White House and the divided Congress: Will lawmakers agree on a government funding bill that averts another shutdown? Will the controversial Export-Import Bank be reauthorized? Which party will control the Senate in 2015? How will the White House exert its administrative power? Will the administration scrap the ObamaCare employer mandate? What steps will be taken to counter the rise of the Islamic
State in Iraq and Syria, and what will Congress’s role be?

Our reporters and editors have selected the most important people among the thousands who are working on this autumn’s hot issues. The decisions made by these newsmakers will affect the U.S. in many ways, both domestically and abroad.

The list of players includes leadership lawmakers, committee chairmen, Cabinet officials, regulators, foreign leaders and campaign operatives.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)

All eyes are on the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman to rein in the National Security Agency. Leahy is the author of the Senate bill to end the government’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, and he seems to have hammered out a compromise that most reformers in Congress, tech companies and the Obama administration can all support. The roster of supporters ranges from Tea Party darling Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to lefty stalwart Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Now, he just needs to convince Senate leadership to make room for the bill. It’s a sure bet that Leahy will be pulling out all the stops to get the bill to the president’s desk by the end of the year.

— Julian Hattem

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.)

Udall is in a tight race for reelection this November against Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), and the future of the Senate could depend on the outcome. Ahead of the election, Udall has been an outspoken critic of National Security Agency surveillance and was the first lawmaker to call for CIA Director John Brennan to resign this summer, after his agency acknowledged that some officials improperly spied on Senate staffers. In a statement to The Hill, he pledged to “keep fighting … to ensure we hold intelligence agencies accountable and take meaningful steps to protect Americans’ privacy rights.” That means “acting on real surveillance reform and continuing to push the CIA and White House to remove excessive redactions to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s study on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program,” he said.

— Julian Hattem

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.)

Walden is the spear for GOP opposition to the Obama administration’s tech policies, including on forthcoming net neutrality rules and airwave auctions. Walden, chairman of the House Commerce subcommittee on Communications and Technology, and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, is also probing the FCC’s decision to grant a company backed by an Obama donor special conditions in an airwave auction. Walden’s subcommittee is also reviewing the law governing the telecommunications industry. He often touts the bipartisan work in his panel, including reaching a deal on a bill governing the TV market. With a separate bill moving through the Senate, Walden is likely to play a key role in any compromise legislation.

— Kate Tummarello

Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission

The FCC’s chief has found himself firmly in the spotlight this year. His effort to rewrite regulations on net neutrality after an appeals court tossed out the commission’s previous rules has come under fire from all sides. The commission has also seen the largest public reaction to any rule-making. The debate over preventing Internet service providers like Verizon or Comcast from blocking or slowing traffic to any websites brought more than 1 million comments.

The commission is also overseeing two multibillion-dollar media mergers: one between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, and another with AT&T and DirecTV. The FCC is also prepping for a heavily anticipated auction of the nation’s airwaves, considering whether to allow towns to build out their own broadband Internet networks and looking to end longstanding regulations forcing satellite and cable TV companies to black out some sports games.

—Julian Hattem

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder

Zuckerberg is among the most visible of Silicon Valley’s leaders in Washington, and he’s likely to retain that high profile this fall. The Facebook co-founder’s immigration reform organization, FWD.us, has continued to push for a legislative overhaul even as momentum has sputtered in Congress. The group could make a new concerted push ahead of the November elections. Zuckerberg has also been a vocal critic of surveillance at the National Security Agency, personally bringing up the issue with President Obama earlier this year. Tech companies have a lot at stake in the fight, amid consumers’ growing fears that their emails, messages and personal information aren’t safe from government eyes. That could lead to billions of dollars in losses over the coming years. In response, Facebook has joined with Apple, Google and a half-dozen other tech giants in the Reform Government Surveillance coalition, a critical voice in support of Leahy’s bill.

— Julian Hattem

Tags Cory Gardner Ed Markey Mark Udall Patrick Leahy Ted Cruz