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Presented by Coalition for App Fairness: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | Presented by Coalition for App Fairness | With Daniel Lippman FIRST IN PI — NFIB GOES ON THE AIR TARGETING ANXE, SHAHEEN, HASSAN: The National Federation of Independent Business is readying its opening salvo to squeeze vulnerable congressional Democrats over the party’s multitrillion-dollar social spending and climate bill. The six-figure ad blitzes from the trade association, which represents small-businesses owners, will include radio, TV and digital spots targeting Iowa Rep. Cindy Axne and New Hampshire Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan to begin with. The ads warn that the tax hikes the party is proposing to pay for the bill could be “crippling” for small businesses and family farms trying to emerge from the pandemic, though the proposal released by the House would lower the corporate tax rate for the smallest businesses. — “New Hampshire’s small businesses have helped define our past, and hopefully our future,” say the radio ads targeting Hassan, who’s up for reelection next year, and Shaheen. “But with Washington politicians proposing trillions in new government spending, that future could be in jeopardy,” the ad warns. — Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this morning announced six-figure campaigns of its own targeting an initial slate of five Democratic lawmakers it endorsed last cycle, paired alongside a “key vote” alert warning that they stand to lose the Chamber’s backing with a vote for the reconciliation bill. The first round of ad buys will target Reps. Angie Craig of Minnesota, Antonio Delgado of New York, Josh Harder of California, Elaine Luria of Virginia and Axne. Between the pandemic and rising consumer costs, the spots contend, “American workers and small businesses are being hit from all sides. … And now, the Biden administration wants to hit them again — with massive tax increases,” which the ads say would be a “body blow” to the economy. — And after PI reported yesterday that a coalition of business groups was hitting the Hill to lobby for passage of the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill, with several, like the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and the Chamber, redoubling their efforts to sway House Republicans, The Business Roundtable reached out to share its strategy. The lobbying group, which represents the CEOs of the country’s largest companies, is live with a seven-figure ad buy in Washington and more than 50 other media markets across the country, aiming to bolster support for the bipartisan bill ahead of the planned Monday vote. The Roundtable’s president and chief executive, Josh Bolten, followed up with a letter to House members earlier this week underscoring the urgency of passing the bill, especially before existing surface transportation authorizations expire at the end of the month. REVOLVING DOOR AT RUSSELL 253 KEEPS SPINNING: David Strickland is leaving the Senate Commerce Committee to return to K Street as vice president of global regulatory affairs for General Motors beginning next month. Strickland, the panel’s staff director, is the third top aide from the committee to head for K Street this month, following the departure of longtime telecom attorney Shawn Bone and telecom staffer John Branscome, who are headed for Verizon’s and Facebook ’s Washington offices, respectively. — Strickland rejoined the Commerce Committee in 2019 after five years as a partner at Venable. Prior to that he served in the Obama administration as administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration following a nearly decadelong opening stint with the Commerce Committee. At GM, he’ll replace Bob Babik, who is retiring next year, and will report to the automaker’s new top lobbyist, Omar Vargas . Strickland’s “knowledge of the issues and ability to work collaboratively with government and industry make him the perfect leader to help drive regulatory policies in support of GM’s growth initiatives, including our vision for an all-electric and autonomous future,” Vargas said in a statement. Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Happy autumn equinox to all who celebrate. Got some juicy K Street or reconciliation gossip? Let’s hear it: coprysko@politico.com . And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. | | | | A message from Coalition for App Fairness: For too long, app stores have abused their power to throttle competition and innovation and stifle consumer choice and freedom in the digital marketplace. The bipartisan Open App Markets Act would rein in these gatekeepers and the unfair and anti-competitive practices running rampant in app stores today to make a freer, fairer, more competitive app economy of tomorrow. | | | FIRST IN PI — NARRATIVE ADDS 5: Public affairs firm Narrative Strategies, which celebrated its second anniversary this month, has added five more to its ranks, effectively doubling the firm’s size since its inception. Tyler Hernandez will join as a director. He was most recently a senior adviser for policy and external affairs at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and before that served as communications director to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). Narrative is also adding Nick Calderon as a strategic communications manager, Elizabeth Berry as senior manager of operations and Charlotte Freeman and Zachary McCutcheon as strategic communications associates. WHAT’S BEHIND AMAZON’S MARIJUANA LOBBYING PUSH: The short answer is so that it can hire more workers, the company’s senior vice president of human resources, Beth Galetti, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. The e-commerce giant announced this summer it would no longer screen job applicants (at least for jobs not regulated at the federal level) for marijuana use. It has since put its considerable lobbying money where its mouth is by endorsing and lobbying for the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement — or MORE — Act, which would decriminalize cannabis and provide for expungement of some nonviolent cannabis offenses. — In the post on Tuesday, Galetti said the company also supports more detailed legislation released this summer from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). The post included a letter from Amazon’s top lobbyist, Brian Huseman , to Schumer, Wyden and Booker laying out the company’s thoughts on the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act. — In addition to seeking to correct for pre-employment testing for marijuana disproportionately affecting people of color, Huseman wrote in the Sept. 1 letter, “as we staff up to meet customer needs, we’ve found that eliminating pre-employment testing for cannabis allows us to expand our applicant pool and assists us with meeting hiring needs. We imagine a number of other employers feel the same way as we do, and we welcome others to join us in ceasing marijuana testing.” — Galetti and Huseman called current federal marijuana policy “unfair and untenable.” They also urged lawmakers to move to expunge federal nonviolent marijuana crimes and allow for resentencing of those in federal prison for such crimes, while encouraging states to do the same, as part of new leadership principles striving to be “Earth’s best employer” and acknowledging that “success and scale bring broad responsibility” to effect change. FLYING IN: The National Multifamily Housing Council is heading to Washington this week to huddle with policymakers across the city as Congress and the Biden administration alike work to speed up the distribution of pandemic rental assistance. The trade association has meetings slated with top housing officials like HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge and FHFA acting Director Sandra Thompson, as well as Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Reps. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.). Members will talk to policymakers about the lagging rental assistance rollout, housing affordability, infrastructure and changes to the tax code. DEPT. OF STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: “A trade organization for the adult entertainment industry has hired a D.C. lobbying firm to build its relationships with lawmakers and to advocate on behalf of key policies that affect the industry,” POLITICO ’s Hailey Fuchs reports. “Most notably it is trying to beat back major changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act,” the legal shield for internet platforms that safeguards them from liability for what their users post and that became a hot-button issue in Washington during the Trump era. — “The same law that protects Instagram and YouTube from being sued over illegal content posted by its users — such as threats or hate speech — also protects sites like PornHub and OnlyFans from their own unlawful content, like child pornography or revenge porn.” As a result, the Free Speech Coalition , a trade organization representing the adult entertainment industry, this summer retained two lobbyists at the lobbying firm Clarity Consulting to help stave off any threats to the prized statute — Keith Nelson, a former Republican Hill staffer and Bush White House alum, along with Shawn Delaney, a longtime lobbyist with Democratic ties. — “In doing so, it became the first group to register to lobby on behalf of the porn industry in Washington. Nelson said that he signed with the Free Speech Coalition in June and would be paid $30,000 per quarter to lobby Congress and the executive branch, including the Treasury Department. Alana Evans , a pornographic actor and the president of a union for the industry’s performers who also serves on the legislative committee for the Free Speech Coalition, tells Hailey “that she and others in the industry had already met with staff for Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), primarily to discuss banking discrimination. … But it is concern about changes to internet regulations that is likely to draw more and more web-based operations and platforms into the influence peddling game.” SPOTTED last night at La Vie for the International Franchise Association's launch of its “Open for Opportunity” campaign and new report from Oxford Economics on the value of franchising, per a PI tipster: IFA President and CEO Matt Haller, Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), former Rep. Kevin Yoder of Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures, Talisha Bekavac of the U.S. Black Chambers, Katie Vlietstra Wonnenberg of Public Private Strategies, Joe Maloney of the Washington Football Team, Jonathan Nabavi of the NFL, Stephen Aaron of Mercury Public Affairs, Genna Gent of the National Restaurant Association, Matt Lathrop of Yum! Brands, Blaire Luciano of Wendy’s, Ashli Palmer and Tim Molino of Tiber Creek Group, and Jeff Ziarko of Economic Policy Strategies. | | | |   | | | | | | — The American Federation of Government Employees promoted Julie Tippens to director of the Legislative, Political, and Mobilization Department. Tippens joined AFGE in 2016 and has since served as the retiree program director and the deputy legislative director. She’s also a House Democratic caucus, DCCC and DNC alum. — Andrew Schwab is now vice president and head of government affairs at Oak Street Health, a network of primary care centers for adults on Medicare. He was most recently director of policy, federal affairs and partnerships at United States of Care. — Former Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) is now special counsel in Eckert Seamans’ government affairs practice. — Scott Simpson is rejoining The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund as managing director of campaigns and programs. The organizations also promoted Jesselyn McCurdy to executive vice president of government affairs, Shin Inouye to executive vice president of communications and Corrine Yu to senior adviser to the president. — Tres Bailey is now vice president of U.S. federal government relations at Ecolab. He previously was senior director of federal government affairs at Walmart. — Kristin White will join the Intelligent Transportation Society of America as chief operating officer. She is currently the executive director for the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Connected and Automated Vehicle Office. — Lee Brenner is now head of public policy for digital assets at Goldman Sachs, per Playbook. He most recently helped lead global public policy and external affairs for Facebook Financial.
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| | | Russo for Ohio Victory Fund (Ohio Democratic Party, Russo for Congress)
TAYLOR CRENSHAW COMMITTEE (Reps. Van Taylor, Dan Crenshaw, Victory and Nation PAC, America Reloaded) | | | Fight Back PAC (Super PAC)
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| | New Lobbying Registrations | | Arent Fox LLP: International Planned Parenthood Federation Western Hemisphere Region
Arent Fox LLP: Teachstone, Inc.
Cohen & Gresser LLP: Management Sciences For Health
Mcguirewoods Consulting (A Subsidiary Of Mcguirewoods LLP): Tomahawk Safety, LLC
O'Keeffe Shahmoradi Strategies, LLC: T. Y. Lin International
Prairie Road, LLC: Ortho Molecular Products, Inc.
The Livingston Group, LLC: Sikhs For Justice
Warwick Group Consultants, LLC: Waikiki Beach Special Improvement District Association | | New Lobbying Terminations | | None. | | | | A message from Coalition for App Fairness: Lack of Competition Hurts Security and Consumer Choice
· Consumers purchase and own their devices — they should have the right to use them as they wish.
· The Apple App Store will still exist. But with more competition, consumers will have options - they can continue to use the app store that gives them the best experience.
· Allowing alternative app stores on iOS devices or offering the same access on iPhones as Apple already does on Macs, would give users more choice and force Apple to compete to provide the best service and security.
· App store gatekeepers feel no competitive pressure to improve security — because there is no alternative.
Competition and choice would make devices more secure. #OpentheAppStore with the Open App Markets Act. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
