WASHINGTON-The Bush administration went into retreat last week after the White House confirmed a report on the removal of four members from a U.S. telecom delegation in Guatemala City because of their campaign contributions to Democrats.
The White House refused to return calls requesting an explanation of the action, which Time magazine first reported. Meantime, other federal agencies either declined to comment or appeared to distance themselves from the administration.
“I don’t have anything to say about that,” said a State Department spokeswoman. The State Department, the Commerce Department and the Federal Communications Commission are involved in preparing for international telecom conferences.
Clyde Ensslin, a spokesman for the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said NTIA does not have a role in picking delegation members.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy defended the policy of bouncing members off the U.S. delegation to the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission, telling Time: “We wanted people who would represent the administration positively, and-call us nutty-it seemed like those who wanted to kick this administration out of town last November would have some difficulty doing that.”
The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission, also known as CITEL, operates under the auspices of the Organization of American States. CITEL has 35 member states and 200 associate members.
The four people pulled off the U.S. delegation to CITEL reportedly were Cecily Cohen of Nokia Corp., Robert Jarrin of Qualcomm Inc., Albert Shuldiner of Ibiquity Digital Corp. and Donald Jansky of Jansky/Barmat Telecom Inc.
“It has not been our understanding that sending technical experts to support U.S. government negotiations on agreed-upon U.S. positions was a partisan issue,” said William Plummer, vice president of communications in the United States for Nokia.
Qualcomm declined to comment, while Shuldiner and Jansky did not return calls requesting interviews.
A former telecom policy-maker in the Clinton administration was critical of the Bush policy.
“There are no partisan positions on spectrum rules or wireless standards,” said Scott Harris, a communications lawyer and a former chief of the FCC’s International Bureau. “When private-sector members serve on U.S. delegations, their expertise makes them effective at convincing others to accept U.S. views. Applying a political test is pointless and weakens the persuasiveness of the U.S. overseas.”
With details still sketchy about who in the administration directed the action and whether it represents a new policy going forward, industry sources last week said they were nervous about the incident’s implications for future U.S telecom delegations. For good reason. Telecom and high-tech firms typically-but not always-give generous campaign contributions to both Republicans and Democrats. Employees tend to stick with their parties. CITEL is a regional telecom meeting. There are other, larger telecom gatherings including those-like the World Radiocommunication Conference-sponsored by the International Telecommunication Union.
The few details that have surfaced on the matter tend to raise more questions rather than clarify the administration’s handling of the U.S. delegation to CITEL.
For example, initial news reports said the individuals were kicked off the U.S. delegation because they contributed to the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).
But a review of Federal Election Commission’s and the Center for Responsive Politics’ databases indicates that only two of the people gave directly to Kerry. Records show Ibiquity’s Shuldiner giving John Kerry for President Inc. $500 in 2004, while Qualcomm’s Jarrin contributed $1,000 to Kerry the same year. But Qualcomm still had U.S. representation on the 34-member American delegation. Qualcomm’s Molly Gavin of San Diego was among the 34 delegates, according to a master list released by the State Department.
In contrast, the FEC has Nokia’s Cohen contributing $250 to the Ohio Democratic Party in 2004 and $300 in 2002 to Stephanie Herseth, now a Democratic South Dakota congresswoman.
A direct Kerry campaign link is absent in Jansky’s case as well. FEC records indicate Jansky’s wife gave $250 to the Democratic National Committee in 2000 after contributing $300 to the DNC in 1998. The FEC says the last time Donald Jansky, a telecom consultant, contributed was in 1998, when he donated $500 to the DNC.
One mobile-phone vendor issue addressed by a working group at CITEL last week was a recommendation that OAS members without existing standards on radio-frequency exposure adopt them in accordance with World Health Organization-International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection guidelines.
