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Presented by Illumina: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | Presented by Illumina | With Daniel Lippman ERVIN GRAVES ADDS TOP EPA AIDE: Ervin Graves, the lobbying and consulting firm where former Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) is now president and chief executive, has hired Amanda Kasper as a vice president in the government relations practice. Kasper was most recently a senior adviser to former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler responsible for coordinating the agency’s children’s environmental health and lead initiatives. She resigned from the agency after the Jan. 6 insurrection, writing in an email that she could not, “in good faith or conscience, continue to uphold my duties on behalf of the Administration.” Prior to joining EPA, Kasper spent nearly a decade at Children’s National Health System. — “Amanda will be an asset to our team with her extensive experience fostering and managing public-private partnerships in healthcare, clinical research and environmental issues,” Graves said in a statement. The firm also promoted Crawford Horan to director of operations. He’s been an associate director there since 2019. GAMING OUT THE LONG-TERM PANDEMIC FALLOUT: Bruce Mehlman of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas is out with his latest data-driven slide deck attempting to suss out the policy and political changes expected from these so-called unprecedented times. The coronavirus pandemic is a “catalyst,” Mehlman writes, one that will continue to keep Washington busy by accelerating trends like digitization, ESG and deglobalization while ratcheting up the backlash against others like tech companies, China and older institutions. — The resulting fallout of perceived failures in the world’s response to the virus will likely reach into every corner of American life, the slide deck argues, especially geopolitics, markets, media, technology, culture and politics. The pandemic has driven global unrest over public health measures, economic issues and inequality, while the “Substackification” of media has resulted in “less shared reality,” Mehlman writes. Meanwhile, climate change has begun to upend markets, corporate executives are grappling with pressure from activists, supply chain issues are coming to the fore, and trust in science is growing while trust in companies is declining. Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Send lobbying tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. | | | | A message from Illumina: Illumina is fighting COVID-19 by unlocking the power of the genome. When COVID-19 emerged as a worldwide threat, Illumina’s sequencing solutions helped decode the viral genome and that information became an essential part of developing a vaccine. The crucial role of genomics doesn’t stop there—find out more at http://www.illumina.com/. | | | CAP FIRES A WARNING SHOT AT DEMS OVER BIDEN AGENDA: “One of the most powerful Democratic-allied groups in D.C. is warning party members that they risk leaving women voters behind if they don’t back President Joe Biden’s social spending package,” POLITICO’s Laura Barrón-López reports. “The Center for American Progress is pressing Democratic lawmakers to keep the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package as close to its original blueprint as possible, arguing that it’s vital for helping women workers hit hard by the pandemic. Simply passing an infrastructure bill, the group warns, would create a massive divergence in the economic recovery along gender lines.” — “‘[I]f funding infrastructure is the only action taken by Congress and the rest of President Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda remains unpassed, there will be little hope for a balanced, sustainable, and equitable economic recovery,’ reads the CAP memo, first shared with POLITICO. ‘Specifically, as vital as the jobs created by the bipartisan infrastructure bill would be, they would almost all be created in occupations that overwhelmingly employ men, without support for occupations primarily held by women.’” — “CAP’s focus on the benefits they say the proposal would provide women is a not-so-subtle warning shot to the party: The voting bloc they depend on won’t necessarily be there in the midterms unless they rally around the totality of Biden’s sweeping economic agenda. It also echoes the case a number of progressive groups and some lawmakers have made as they push for the bill.” BATTLE OF THE SPACE BILLIONAIRES: Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk on Wednesday swiped at one of his prime rivals in the billionaire space race, Amazon and Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos, knocking Bezos for the immense footprint his companies have in Washington. The barb comes amid a battle between SpaceX and Blue Origin for a lucrative NASA contract to build the next lunar lander, The Daily Mail reported. SpaceX recently won the contract, but Blue Origin is protesting that decision and last week posted an infographic criticizing SpaceX’s lunar Starship as “immensely complex and high risk.” — On Wednesday night, Musk replied to a tweet poking fun at the energy Blue Origin was expending on protesting the decision. “If lobbying & lawyers could get u to orbit, Bezos would be on Pluto [right now],” Musk quipped. — Of course, both founders’ companies drop millions of dollars a year lobbying Washington. Bezos’ Amazon and its subsidiaries have massively outspent Musk’s Tesla on lobbying through the first six months of the year, $11.6 million to $400,000, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics . But Musk’s SpaceX has dropped $3.1 million on lobbying through the first half of the year, including on a dozen outside lobbying firms, compared with Blue Origin, which has spent $1.5 million during the same period, including on seven outside firms. SpaceX spent $4.2 million total last year on lobbying, while Blue Origin spent $3.1 million. | | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | HOW TRADE GROUPS ARE TRYING TO SHAPE CYBERATTACK REPORTING BILLS: “Companies are pushing to narrow legislation that would require them to report cyberattacks to the U.S. government, as a series of hacks has added momentum to a nearly decadelong effort in Congress to approve such a law,” The Wall Street Journal’s David Uberti reports. “Several businesses and trade associations have called for tightly defining the kind of hacks covered by legislation as well as a 72-hour period for reporting incidents, instead of the 24-hour period a Senate bill proposes, according to people familiar with the matter.” — “The last thing you want to be doing is providing incomplete information or incorrect information before you don’t really know what’s going on,” said John Miller, senior vice president of policy and general counsel at the Information Technology Industry Council, which counts as members tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm , and which supports at least a 72-hour reporting window. ITI is also pushing for liability protections for companies that report cyber incidents and exemptions from Freedom of Information Act requests, the Journal reports. — “Industry groups previously opposed such proposals, fearing divulged information could help hackers plan future attacks and could invite lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny. But the breach of federal agencies through SolarWinds Corp. software last year prompted a change of heart among some businesses, as it exposed a lack of visibility into digital supply chains that provide hackers multiple ways into individual targets, lobbyists and trade groups said.” SUNRISE MOVEMENT MEMBERS OF COLOR ALLEGE MISTREATMENT: “As the youth-led Sunrise Movement helped catapult racial justice to the center of the national conversation on climate change, many of its members of color repeatedly charged over the last three years that they felt ‘tokenized,’ ‘used,’ ‘ignored,’ and ‘dismissed,’” BuzzFeed News’ Zahra Hirji and Ryan Brooks report. “That's according to a series of internal memos and letters, signed by at least 100 young climate activists and obtained by BuzzFeed News. The activists said they were overworked and underpaid; warned that the group was unable to attract or retain members of color, especially Black ones; bemoaned the lack of diversity among Sunrise leaders; and demanded resources to build up support in communities of color.” | | | |   | | | | | | — Lauren Wilk has joined Arconic Corp. as vice president of government relations, replacing Mike Belwood when he retires later this year. She previously served as the vice president of government relations and international programs at the Aluminum Association and is a NAM alum. — The International Center for Research on Women named Peggy Clark as its new chief executive. Clark was most recently the executive director for the Aspen Global Innovators Group. — Alessandra Pollare will join SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment as their manager of reputation content. She was previously the director of brand marketing and communications for Happy Wax and is also an Edelman alum. — Sarah Baron is now campaign director of economy campaigns at the Hub Project. She previously was senior campaigns director at Climate Power 2020. — Jay Boyd is joining Bullpen Strategy Group as director in the strategic communications practice. He previously was a manager at FP1 Strategies. | | | | Be a Policy Pro. POLITICO Pro has a free policy resource center filled with our best practices on building relationships with state and federal representatives, demonstrating ROI, and influencing policy through digital storytelling. Read our free guides today . | | | | | | | | None. | | | None. | | New Lobbying Registrations | | Albertine Enterprises, Inc.: Crest Foundation
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP: Pharmacosmos Therapeutics Inc.
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP: Provention Bio, Inc.
Atlas Crossing LLC: Global Digital Asset & Cryptocurrency Association D.B.A Global Dca
Holland & Knight LLP: Arizona College Of Nursing
Holland & Knight LLP: Burnham Developer LLC (On Behalf Of Akridge)
Holland & Knight LLP: Hypori LLC
Husch Blackwell Strategies: Csmi, LLC
Nossaman LLP: Bureau Veritas
Van Scoyoc Associates: Yuba County Water Agency | | New Lobbying Terminations | | J.S. Held, LLC: Huawei Technology USa, Inc.
Loyola Strategies, LLC: Arevia Power, LLC
Mr. Doyce Boesch: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association | | | | A message from Illumina: We’re developing tools to access the power of genes, faster and more affordably to access the wealth of information genes hold. Discoveries. Clues. Answers. All for breakthroughs that improve lives. Illumina technology enables health officials to understand and track COVID-19 variants across the world. We have committed $60 million to support the creation of a global pathogen geonomics initiative so that the world can detect, manage, and even prevent future pandemics. This is genomics for good. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
