Some high-profile members of the FCC’s most significant advisory ...

Craig Holman, Capitol Hill lobbyist for Public Citizen, said in an interview Tuesday the administration appears to be sending up a “trial balloon” as it looks at further tightening lobbyist restrictions. Holman said the restrictions would likely be consistent with the ethics order President Barack Obama released his first day in office. The restrictions would probably apply to committees chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Holman said. That would include such high-profile committees as the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age, the Consumer Advisory Committee and the North American Numbering Council. Applying such restrictions to independent regulatory commissions raises questions of executive branch interference, said Andrew Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project. “That aside, as a measure designed to promote public confidence in the activities of government, it’s a potentially useful development,” said Schwartzman, a member of the diversity committee who’s not a registered lobbyist. But a member of one advisory committee and former FCC official noted that advisory committees at the FCC have no decision-making power. “It’s not like the advisory committee is whispering in the chairman’s ear.” A ban on lobbyists would create immediate holes in the Consumer Advisory Committee. Marti Doneghy, representing AARP, Consumer Union’s Joel Kelsey, the American Council of the Blind’s Eric Bridges and former FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani all are listed as registered lobbyists by CQ Moneyline. Among members of the diversity committee listed in the database of registered lobbyists are NAB’s Jane Mago, NCTA’s James Assey, Toni Cook Bush, representing Virgin Mobile, and Google’s Alan Davidson.