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Presented by Paid Leave for All: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | Presented by Paid Leave for All | With Daniel Lippman GROUPS OPPOSING EVICTION BAN SPENT BIG ON LOBBYING: A coalition of real estate and housing groups that has fiercely opposed the succession of eviction moratoriums issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection under the Trump and Biden administrations spent handsomely to lobby Congress and the executive branch in the lead up to a flurry of new developments over the last week. The Justice Department defended its latest ban this morning in front of a federal judge, arguing that the comparatively targeted order Biden issued on Tuesday is necessary because "the trajectory of the pandemic has changed dramatically as a result of the highly contagious Delta variant." — That lawsuit was brought by the Alabama and Georgia chapters of the National Association of Realtors and local real estate businesses and realtors in those states, and is the continuation of a legal challenge that worked its way to the Supreme Court earlier this summer. The trade group spent more than $85 million lobbying last year, according to data from OpenSecrets.org, the most in more than two decades, with more than $33 million spent in the third quarter alone, encompassing the beginning of the Trump administration’s moratorium. The group has already dropped more than $18 million on lobbying through the first half of this year, according to lobbying disclosures. — That moratorium expired on July 31 after the Biden administration, citing a Supreme Court opinion that congressional action was required to extend the eviction ban further, punted the issue late last week to the Hill, where House Democrats were unable to pass an extension before recessing for the month. Under immense pressure from the left , the Biden administration issued a new moratorium on Tuesday focused on counties with high levels of Covid-19 transmission. All the while a coalition of roughly a dozen industry groups has vocally opposed the moratorium, pushing instead for quicker disbursement of $46.5 billion in rental assistance the groups argue will go toward helping make landlords and renters whole again. — “While well-intentioned, the national eviction moratorium has made providing rental housing unaffordable for many property owners. It has been especially difficult for “mom-and-pop landlords” who have had to continue to pay mortgages, taxes, insurance, and maintain the safety of their properties for tenants with less or, in many cases, no rental income,” the groups wrote in a letter to House members last week. — The coalition includes NAR, the CCIM Institute, the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, the Council for Affordable and Rural Housing, the Institute of Real Estate Management, the Manufactured Housing Institute, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Affordable Housing Management Association, the National Apartment Association, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Residential Property Managers, the National Multifamily Housing Council, the National Association of Housing Cooperatives, the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors and The Real Estate Roundtable. Between the 10 groups who spent more than $20,000 on lobbying, the coalition collectively spent more than $105 million on lobbying last year and has spent more than $28 million between its organizations through the first six months of 2021. Though none of the groups has spent nearly as much as the association of realtors, the National Multifamily Housing Council has topped $3.1 million, the Real Estate Roundtable $2.4 million the National Association of Home Builders $1.7 million and the Mortgage Bankers Association $1.4 million in the first half of the year. — The apartment association, which has spent more than $2.1 million on lobbying efforts over the last 18 months and hired its first outside lobbying firm this year, has sued over the eviction moratorium separately from the realtors’ suit. The group last week sued the federal government for damages, which the trade association says amount to about $26.6 billion in debt taken on by apartment owners and operators as a result of the moratorium it says is illegal. Happy Friday and welcome to PI . Before you head out of town to whatever lake or beach you plan to spend your August beside, send lobbying tips or idle gossip: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. | | | | A message from Paid Leave for All: Paid Leave for All is the national campaign of organizations fighting to win paid family and medical leave for all working people. Everyone should be able to take the time they need to care for themselves or a loved one without risking their job or paycheck. Now, Congress has the chance to pass paid leave, and support families and businesses. Join us. There’s no time to lose. Visit PaidLeaveForAll.org. | | | DENNIS ROSS REGISTERS TO LOBBY: Former Florida Rep. Dennis Ross, who retired from Congress in 2019, has registered to lobby on behalf of Tampa-based JC Newman Cigars, according to newly filed disclosures. According to the disclosure, Ross will lobby for the century-old company on a perennially introduced bill that aims to exempt handmade, premium cigars from FDA regulation. — Ross is the latest former member of Congress to register to lobby for the first time. Second quarter lobbying reports from last month show that former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), once eyed as a potential successor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi before his upset loss to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019, registered as a lobbyist for the first time earlier this year. The Bronx Democrat, now a senior policy adviser at Squire Patton Boggs, lobbied in the second quarter on behalf of MusicFirst, an organization fighting for the rights of musicians and creators, Calvary Hospital, which is located in Crowley’s old district, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare CORPORATE CLIMATE COALITION GIVES EXXON THE BOOT: “The Climate Leadership Council has booted Exxon Mobil from its roster in response to comments by one of the oil giant's lobbyists that the company's calls to put a price on carbon were a public relations strategy rather than realistic policy,” POLITICO’s Ben Lefebvre reports. ‘After careful consideration, we have decided to suspend ExxonMobil's membership in both the Council and Americans for Carbon Dividends, our advocacy arm,’ CLC Chief Executive Greg Bertelsen said in a statement.” — “Exxon had been a founding member of the group that includes several major corporations as well as top Democratic and Republican officials. The group has staked out a pro-market, centrist position supporting market mechanisms to fight climate change and advocating for a carbon tax. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.” An employee of the group, “who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, said the group's decision came after ‘recent comments about Exxon Mobil’s climate policy positions by one of its employees.’” CUOMO REPORT ENSNARES HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN CHIEF: “The president of the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization is under fire from activists and some of his own employees over his role in the sexual harassment controversy surrounding New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D),” The Hill’s Karl Evers-Hillstrom and Alex Gangitano report. According to the report released this week by state Attorney General Tish James, Alphonso David, a former Cuomo staffer who now leads the Human Rights Campaign “provided Cuomo aides with a confidential personnel file of a former Cuomo staffer after the staffer publicly accused the governor of harassment.” — “Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel , the second openly lesbian person to be elected attorney general of a state, tweeted Wednesday that she would not accept campaign donations or support from HRC until the organization selects a new president. David has defended his actions, stating that he was legally required to turn over the file. He has also indicated that he had no idea it was to be used as part of an effort to discredit her,” and has called on Cuomo to resign. HRC’s board has stood by David, “but the organization is coming under pressure internally as well as externally. During an all-staff meeting Wednesday, several staffers called for his resignation, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by HuffPost.” BUSINESS GROUPS ANTSY ABOUT STALLED CHINA TALKS: Some of the nation’s most influential business groups appear to be getting impatient with the pace of the Biden administration’s review of China trade policy. Nearly three dozen of them, “representing retailers, chip makers, farmers and others … are calling on the Biden administration to restart negotiations with China and cut tariffs on imports, saying they are a drag on the U.S. economy,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s Bob Davis. “The tariffs on electronics, apparel and other Chinese goods, which are paid by U.S. importers, were kept in place in part to ensure that China fulfills its obligations under its 2020 Phase One trade pact with the U.S.” — In a letter Thursday to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, National Retail Federation, the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Semiconductor Industry Association asserted “that Beijing had met ‘important benchmarks and commitments’ in the agreement, including opening markets to U.S. financial institutions and reducing some regulatory barriers to U.S. agricultural exports to China.” — The groups asked that the administration “remove tariffs that harm U.S. interests.” The administration “has given few hints about whether it intends to try to enforce the Phase One trade accord negotiated by the Trump administration or seek to extend it. Chinese officials have told U.S. business executives that they won’t move on trade issues until the administration makes clear that it accepts the Phase One deal.” — According to the Journal, Tai “met privately Thursday with executives from a half-dozen large West Coast companies during a stop in Seattle, said a person familiar with the meeting. She expressed sympathy with their request that the administration finish its review, this person said, but didn’t give any details about the unfolding policy or when it would be unveiled.” | | | |   | | | | | | — The American Hospital Association has named Lisa Kidder Hrobsky senior vice president of legislative and political affairs. She was previously group vice president of federal relations for the association. — Jason Kratovil will be head of policy at the fintech SentiLink. He is founder and executive director of the Consumer First Coalition, principal at the law firm Sivon, Natter & Wechsler and an alum of the Financial Services Roundtable, American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America and the late Rep. Steve LaTourette. — Chris Moyer will be senior campaigns adviser at Amplify New Hampshire. He was previously Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.H.)’s New Hampshire communications director. — Rob Rigo has joined communications firm J Strategies as social media and digital content manager. He previously served as social media and communications director for Dellbrook | JKS, a New England-based general contractor. | | | None. | | | 31 Days PAC (Leadership PAC: Rep. Jake Ellzey)
MA 4 Dems PAC (Leadership PAC: Rep. Jake Auchincloss) | | New Lobbying Registrations | | Bravo Group: We Work For Health
Bridge Public Affairs, LLC: City Of Chattanooga, Tennessee
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Pc: Command Management Services, Inc.
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Pc: Ideal Semiconductor Devices, Inc.
Capitol Tax Partners, LLP: Proquest LLC
Dentons US LLP: Blue Wolf Capital Fund V L.P.
Dentons US LLP: Michigan Potash And Salt Company
Dentons US LLP: The Guidry Group
Dte Energy: Dt Midstream Holdings, LLC
Forbes-Tate: Direct Supply, Inc.
Forbes-Tate: Saving Americas Family Enterprises, Inc.
Funk & Bolton: Tobacco Free Kids Action Fund
Henderson Strategies, Inc.: Seafood Nutrition Partnership, Inc.
Holland & Knight LLP: County Of Delaware, Pa
Holland & Knight LLP: Securitas, Inc.
Ice Miller Strategies LLC: City Of Birmingham, Alabama
Lsn Partners, LLC: Vault Health Inc.
Riverside Strategic Solutions, LLC: Atchison Amelia Earhart Foundation
The Kpm Group Dc LLC: The Brain Donor Project
The Ross Law Firm, LLC: Jc Newman Cigar Company
Wp Rivers And Associates: Center For Applied Linguistics | | New Lobbying Terminations | | Alcalde & Fay: Port Of Los Angeles
Cordone Consulting LLC: Guar Resources LLC
Forbes-Tate: Broadcom Limited
Jim Gould Strategies LLC: Capitol Counsel LLC On Behalf Of State Fund Cong. Action Groiup
Jonathan Gregory: Zhs Ip Americas Sarl (On Behalf Of Apco Worldwide)
Ms. Elizabeth Lavach: Frequency Therapeutics, Inc.
Pat Younger: Cedar Bayou Navigation District (Note New Name For Navigation District)
Riverside Strategic Solutions, LLC: Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation
Siekman And Siekman LLC: Cleveland Construction
Step Up Advocacy: Boys And Girls Clubs Of America
The Keelen Group, LLC: International Brotherhood Of Boilermakers Iron Shipbuilders Blacksmiths Forge
The Keelen Group, LLC: Refraction Asset Management Ltd.
The Keelen Group, LLC: United Brotherhood Of Carpenters | | | | A message from Paid Leave for All: Passing paid leave and other care policies would yield millions of jobs, billions in wages, and trillions in GDP.
This summer, Paid Leave for All is proud to lead a cross-country bus tour to rally our communities around a paid leave policy that benefits all working Americans—and the opportunity to finally pass this law.
Join us at a stop along our bus tour as we hear from Members of Congress, advocates, families, and local leaders as we make this the year for paid leave for all. Check out our tour schedule at PaidLeaveForAll.org and take action with us. Let’s make history together. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
