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Presented by America’s Job Creators for a Strong Recovery: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | | | With Daniel Lippman S-3 SIGNS RAYTHEON AHEAD OF NDAA FIGHT: Raytheon Technologies, which owns F-35 fighter jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, has hired a new team of lobbyists from S-3 Group amid a lobbying fight with General Electric over upgrades to the Lockheed Martin jet’s propulsion system. — At the heart of the brewing policy fight is the need for more thrust and cooling power from the jet’s engines, POLITICO’s Lee Hudson reported earlier this month . Lawmakers are trying to determine whether to upgrade the existing Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, a monopoly Raytheon’s new lobbyists will fight to preserve, or open up a competition for a brand new engine for the jets, which GE is pushing, arguing that a competition could bring down the cost to the government of the eventual winner. — Pratt & Whitney has argued that its updated engine package would work in different variants of the F-35 and would not force the military services to field a new engine and potentially lead to a mixed fleet of new propulsion systems and F135s, a company exec told Lee. — Matt Bravo, a former aide to House Minority Whip Steve Scalise; Martin Delgado, an ex-House Approps aide; Jose Ceballos, a former National Air Traffic Controllers Association lobbyist; Michael Long, a former aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; and John Scofield, a former Mark Hatfield and Frank LoBiondo aide, will lobby on the account for S-3 as the Senate finally gears up to begin debate on the annual defense policy legislation. Raytheon, which spent $4.5 million on lobbying last quarter, retains more than a dozen other outside lobbying firms, including Holland & Knight, DLA Piper, Thorn Run Partners, Innovative Federal Strategies, Invariant, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and American Defense International. Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Send lobbying tips: coprysko@politico.com And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. | | A message from America’s Job Creators for a Strong Recovery: Tax the rich? Hardly. Under the Biden-Bernie $1.75 trillion tax-and-spend bill, family-owned businesses would be hit hardest. It would impose taxes on incomes way under $400,000, burden Main Street employers with the highest tax rates in the world and destroy middle-class jobs. It’s time for Congress to say NO. Watch here to learn more: | | | FLYING IN: Members of the National Automatic Merchandising Association , which represents the convenience services industry — businesses that operate vending machines, micro markets, coffee, tea and water, and pantry services — are in D.C. this week to lobby members of Congress to preserve one more quarter of the employee-retention tax credit, which the industry called a “lifeline,” by including it in Democrats’ reconciliation bill. NAMA members will also discuss issues like labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate and more. — The Covid-era tax credit, which was established in the CARES Act last spring and extended in President Joe Biden ’s coronavirus relief package this year, provides a fully refundable tax credit for 50 percent of wages, for employees kept on the payroll by businesses that took a financial hit because of the pandemic. The tax credit was initially supposed to last through the end of the year. But the bipartisan infrastructure bill that Biden is set to sign into law this afternoon retroactively ends the program three months early, preventing businesses from collecting the credit for wages paid after Sept. 30. — The restaurant industry is also protesting the end of the tax credit — the National Restaurant Association wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig today urging them to take steps to mitigate the fallout for the industry, which the NRA’s top lobbyist, Sean Kennedy , said was now the “only available federal government relief that could support payroll and employee benefits without adding new debt.” FLYING IN (PART DEUX): The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, whose members include Amazon, Boeing, UPS, Skydio, Wing, Zipline, Huntington Ingalls, Kongsberg, Northrop, Peraton and Boston Dynamics, is also holding a fly-in this week to advocate for legislation supporting the development and secure deployment of unmanned systems like drones, unmanned maritime vessels, automated freight and delivery, and robotics. — The industry group is set to meet with a number of offices in the House and Senate, including those of Sens. John Boozman (R-Ark.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). The group will also reiterate its asks for more funding for unmanned maritime systems initiatives in the Navy. THE LATEST FLASHPOINT IN DRUG PRICING FIGHT: “Democrats managed to strike a compromise on drug prices to advance their sweeping social spending bill. But as the House prepares to send the package to the Senate, the way the plan would extend price controls beyond Medicare to private health coverage is stoking another battle over the package,” POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Wilson report. — “At issue is Democrats’ push to penalize drugmakers if they hike prices of medicine faster than inflation, a provision Republicans and the drug industry see as government overreach — and, they say, a violation of the Senate’s parliamentary rules for considering the bill because it’s a non-budgetary item.” — “Drug industry lobbyists are urging Republican senators to scuttle the drug-pricing language with parliamentary challenges while looking for cracks in the Democrats’ ranks after the industry fought off more aggressive House attempts to impose drug price controls,” while ‘’backers fear both practical and political consequences if the inflation cap is stripped out — warning that drug companies could hike prices for the roughly 180 million people on employer health plans or other private insurance to make up for the revenue they stand to lose from Medicare price negotiations and other provisions of the bill.” — “Organized labor and groups representing some of the country’s biggest employers have banded with supporters of the inflation caps like Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) to lobby key centrist Democrats who could be swing votes.” | | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT: Join POLITICO's Sustainability Summit on Tuesday, Nov. 16 and hear leading voices from Washington, state houses, city halls, civil society and corporate America discuss the most viable policy and political solutions that balance economic, environmental and social interests. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | CALVERT HEADS TO COINBASE: The crypto exchange Coinbase has moved one of its external lobbyists in-house, hiring Kara Calvert as the company’s senior director of public policy for North America. Calvert joins Coinbase after nearly 13 years as a partner at Franklin Square Group, which was the first outside firm Coinbase hired and which has lobbied for Coinbase since 2017. Calvert is an Information Technology Industry Council and Mike Enzi alum. CHINA URGES COMPANIES TO FIGHT COMPETITION BILLS: “China has been pushing U.S. executives, companies and business groups in recent weeks to fight against China-related bills in the U.S. Congress,” four sources familiar with the initiative told Reuters’ Michael Martina. “Letters from China's embassy in Washington have pressed executives to urge members of Congress to alter or drop specific bills that seek to enhance U.S. competitiveness, according to the sources and the text of a letter sent by the embassy's economic and commercial office seen by Reuters.” — “Chinese officials warned companies they would risk losing market share or revenue in China if the legislation becomes law, according to the text of the letter. … The sources said China's request also left some individuals who received a letter concerned that they could be seen as violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) if they lobbied lawmakers on similar issues in the future. As a result, none of the sources wanted to be identified as having received or seen the letter.” ANNALS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE: “If you clicked on a Facebook ad or an email from a political action committee called When Democrats Turn Out, you might think all the money you donated was going straight to your favored candidate,” Insider’s Kayla Epstein writes. “But most of When Democrats Turn Out's disbursements — the amount of money it spends — have gone to a Democratic-aligned digital firm called Basecamp Strategy, according to Federal Election Commission data.” — “Both When Democrats Turn Out PAC and Basecamp Strategy were founded by the same person, Mike Reid, in 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. Reid is a digital operative who worked on campaigns for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and the activist Sean Eldridge before starting his own firm to cater to Democrats." — “In the 2019-2020 campaign cycle, the PAC spent $1,335,093, according to federal data. Of that, $899,074 was disbursed to Basecamp Strategy. Just $165,000 went directly to candidates, according to Open Secrets, and $36,0138 went toward independent expenditures, or money spent to explicitly advocate or oppose a candidate. Since the PAC's founding in 2018, it has spent $2,609,177. Of that, it paid $1,565,990 — 60% of its disbursements — to Basecamp Strategy.” NFIB PROMOTES 3: The National Federation of Independent Business announced three new promotions in its D.C. office: Adam Temple will become senior vice president for advocacy, promoted from vice president of public affairs; Tim Goodrich will become vice president for state government relations, promoted from executive director of state government relations; and Kipp Maloney will become vice president for political, development and compliance, promoted from executive director of political, development and compliance. | | | | A message from America’s Job Creators for a Strong Recovery:   | | | | | | — Avery Williams Eagan has joined Vogel Group as a director. She was previously a legislative correspondent for Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), working on his foreign relations, judiciary, and energy portfolios. — Issue One has promoted Ethan Rome from chief of communications and strategic initiatives to chief of strategy and programs, overseeing the political reform group’s legislative, communications, and research work. Legislative affairs manager Elise Wirkus has been promoted to legislative director, and LeLann Evans is joining as campaign specialist. — Lauri Ng is joining Mindset as director. Ng most recently served as senior counsel for the House Financial Services Committee. — Amelia Irvine has been promoted to be senior consultant at Bates White Economic Consulting. She previously was a consultant for the firm. — John Funderburk is joining the Federation of American Hospitals as senior vice president of external affairs, where he'll manage the trade association's advocacy and coalition strategy as well as its public affairs team. He most recently was vice president for advocacy at the Alzheimer’s Association and worked at the American Medical Association as regional political director. — Tara Maller has been promoted to be senior risk adviser for public and social sectors at McKinsey. She most recently was risk manager for public and social sectors for the Americas at the firm. — Marianela López-Galdos is joining Meta, where she will work on competition policy issues and Thom Parisi is now a public policy manager on Meta’s connectivity and access policy team in D.C. López-Galdos was most recently global competition counsel at the Computer and Communications Industry Association . Parisi previously was an associate at Covington & Burling. — Ellen Satterwhite is now head of U.S. policy at Patreon. She was previously vice president at Glen Echo Group. — Josh Blumenfeld is joining Google as manager of government affairs and public policy for YouTube. He previously was managing director of global policy and advocacy and chief legal officer at Malaria No More. — Erin Perrine is launching TAG Strategies’ public relations arm as vice president. She previously was comms director for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). | | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | | Casey Wardynski JFC (Creating a Secure Economy PAC, Casey for Congress) | | | 2022 Project (PAC)
Build the Bench PAC (Leadership PAC: Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.)
Fighting For New England PAC (PAC)
Lets Go, LLC (Super PAC)
New North Carolina Project PAC (Hybrid PAC)
United For Liberty PAC (PAC) | | New Lobbying Registrations | | Allison + Partners: Sunrise Energy Metals
Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz /The Daschle Group: Compass Capitol
Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz /The Daschle Group: Exodus Movement, Inc.
Ballard Partners: American Veterinary Medical Association
Ballard Partners: Clinical Research Of West Florida, Inc.
Ballard Partners: Core And Main Lp
Ballard Partners: Swarm, Inc.
Ballard Partners: The Foundation United
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Avalara
Invariant LLC: Social Capital
Jason Slattery: Eden Green Technology
Kinetic Solutions Group: Alliance For Business Partnerships
Kinetic Solutions Group: Carbon Sink LLC
Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid, LLC: Tusk Philanthropies
S-3 Group: Raytheon Technologies Corporation And Affiliates
The Merchant Strategy, Inc.: Intermex Wire Transfer LLC
Tremont Strategies Group LLC: Gocheck Kids, Inc.
Watkins & Eager Pllc: Horn Lake Creek Basin Interceptor Sewer District | | New Lobbying Terminations | | Six Ideas Before Breakfast: National Newspaper Association | | A message from America’s Job Creators for a Strong Recovery: Family-owned and Main Street businesses are already struggling through a pandemic and rising prices – they can’t afford another massive tax hike under the Biden-Bernie tax-and-spend bill. It’s time for Congress to say NO. Watch here to learn more: | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
