Tech, Telecom Groups Lament Boucher's Defeat
November 3, 2010
| 4:13 PM
Technology and telecommunications industry groups and others Wednesday lamented the defeat Tuesday of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee.
Boucher was defeated in his bid for a 15th term by Republican Morgan Griffith, the majority leader of the Virginia House of Delegates, on a day that claimed many long-term Democratic incumbents who had managed to win over the years by bringing home federal dollars, which may have worked against them in an anti-incumbent year.
"Congressman Boucher was the defeat of the night for the tech world. He was the best and most knowledgeable congressional geek for tech policy," Consumer Electronics Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro said.
Despite representing a largely rural district, Boucher had managed over the years to easily win re-election -- even running unopposed in 2008 -- by focusing on constituent service, bringing jobs to his district and protecting its key sectors such as the coal industry. He also has helped make his rural district, home of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, one of the most wired districts in the country.
Boucher may be best known in Washington for his work on telecommunications and tech issues. Co-chairman of the Congressional Internet Caucus, Boucher has played an important role in many tech and telecom issues over the years such as the Satellite Home Viewers Act, which allowed satellite companies to provide local broadcast programs to their subscribers, the 1996 telecommunications act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which updated the nation's copyright laws for the digital age.
"Rep. Rick Boucher was at the center of American telecommunications policy for nearly three decades, a profoundly transformative period covering the break up of AT&T and the explosive arrival of the global Internet," American Cable Association President and CEO Matthew Polka said in a statement. "Rep. Boucher understood that good policy is made when concept confronts opportunity, and he went about the business of lawmaking with erudition, calm civility and intellectual rigor in an effort to locate the most desirable outcome for the nation and his rural Virginia district."
Boucher is a senior member of both the House Energy and Commerce and Judiciary committees, panels with prime jurisdiction over issues that affect tech and telecom industries. He assumed the chairmanship in the 110th congress of the Energy and Commerce Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee and got to work on a number of key issues including overhauling the universal service program and crafting privacy legislation.
Association for Competitive Technology Executive Director Morgan Reed said Boucher's "will be large shoes to fill from the tech sector."
Colin Crowell, a former longtime telecom staffer to Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., on the Energy and Commerce Committee, described Boucher as "one of the most knowledgeable members on the committee." Crowell, who now runs his own consulting firm, also noted Boucher's work as a "champion of fair use and consumer rights in the copyright context."
Reed and others also praised Boucher's willingness to cross party lines and work with Republicans on many issues. He worked this Congress with Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., on legislation to overhaul the universal service fund, and with Communications subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., on draft privacy legislation.
"Boucher has been nothing less than a thoughtful steward of Internet issues," the Center for Democracy and Technology said in a statement. "By his absence we lose someone with a broad expertise in Internet policy that also had a willingness to step up and wrestle with tough issues."
This sentiment was echoed by Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn who described Boucher as one of Congress' "most intelligent and tech-savvy members. Rick Boucher has been one of the most moderate and thoughtful voices on communications and intellectual property policy."
Boucher was among the top 10 recipients of campaign donations from the communications and electronics sector, collecting nearly $400,000 this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He was the top recipient of donations from telephone utilities bringing in $89,000. Boucher received $10,000 from Verizon's political action committee alone and an additional $19,000 from several Verizon executives, including CEO Ivan Seidenberg and Executive Vice President Tom Tauke, a former GOP House member from Iowa.
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