Comcast spent $3.3M lobbying government in 2Q

Comcast Corp. spent nearly $3.3 million in the second quarter to lobby Congress on executive pay, sports programming and other issues, according to a recent disclosure report.

The nation's largest cable operator, which is based in Philadelphia, lobbied on the Excessive Pay Capped Deduction Act of 2009, a bill that would stop tax deductions on excessive compensation given to any employee. Excessive pay is defined as any amount above 100 times the average employee's compensation at the company.

Comcast also lobbied on the Income Equity Act of 2009, another bill that seeks to curb executive pay by limiting tax deductions on pay greater than 25 times the compensation of the company's lowest paid worker or $500,000, whichever is greater.

The Philadelphia-based company also lobbied on the Shareholder Bill of Rights Act of 2009, which would let shareholders vote annually to approve executive compensation.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts' pay has been a sore point among shareholders, who have submitted proposals at several annual meetings to either curb compensation or let them vote on it.

Last year, Roberts received $24.7 million in compensation as calculated by the Associated Press.

In the April-June period, Comcast also lobbied on cable's carriage of sports programming such as the NFL Network, Big Ten Network and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. Comcast has had tussles with sports networks over whether, and where, to carry them.

Comcast also lobbied on cable ownership limits, broadband provisions of the economic stimulus, and unionization of employees, according to the report filed July 20 with the House clerk's office.