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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 MYANMAR JUNTA TO SHELL OUT $2M FOR PR HELP: One of Myanmar’s military rulers has enlisted the PR assistance of an Israeli-Canadian lobbyist as the junta seeks relief from U.S. sanctions in the wake of a military coup last month and escalating violence against protesters there , signing a contract worth $2 million, according to documents filed with the Justice Department on Monday. — The existence of the contract, between Defense Minister Mya Tun Oo and Ari Ben-Menashe, of the Canadian lobbying firm Dickens & Madson, was first reported last week by Foreign Lobby Report’s Julian Pecquet. But Monday’s filing revealed the worth of the lobbying arrangement for the first time, if Ben-Menashe succeeds in altering the country’s sanctions. — Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence operative, will lobby U.S. officials, as well as executive and legislative branch officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Russia, the United Nations, the African Union and other international entities as needed, according to the agreement. He will advocate for “support and humanitarian aid for the benefit” of Myanmar’s citizens and “removal or modification” of sanctions against the military junta and Burmese companies. — Ben-Menashe will also advise the junta on public relations and “assist in explaining the real situation” in the country, where dozens of protesters have been killed in the past week, unions are calling for strikes and there have been media and communications blackouts while the de facto, democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi , and members of her governing party have been detained. — In an interview with Reuters over the weekend , Ben-Menashe called the global fury over the coup “misunderstood” and said that Suu Kyi had gotten too close to China for the military’s liking. He also told the outlet that “he had been tasked with contacting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to get their support for a plan to repatriate the Rohingya, a Muslim minority,” whom the Burmese military is accused of brutally murdering, forcing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee into neighboring Bangladesh. Good afternoon and welcome to PI. It’s a beautiful spring(like) day. Go enjoy this newsletter outside, or at the very least near an open window. In the meantime, got lobbying tips? My inbox is open: coprysko@politico.com. As are my DMs: @caitlinoprysko. | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO “THE RECAST” TO JOIN AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION: Power dynamics are changing. “Influence” is changing. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that all politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. “The Recast” is our new twice-weekly newsletter that breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics, policy and power in America. And POLITICO is recasting how we report on this crucial intersection, bringing you fresh insights, scoops, dispatches from across the country and new voices that challenge “business as usual.” Don’t miss out on this important new newsletter, SUBSCRIBE NOW. Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | FIRST IN PI — GM DEFENSE ADDS HOUSE ARMED SERVICES HAND: Jesse Tolleson is joining GM Defense as director of government relations. He’ll report to Angela Ambrose, GM Defense’s vice president of government relations & communications and interim vice president of business development. Tolleson was most recently staff director for the House Armed Services’ Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, giving him “extensive knowledge of the relationship dynamics between decision-makers on the Hill, at the Pentagon and among GM’s defense competitors," according to a press release. He will lead the company’s congressional advocacy efforts. WHAT H.R. 1 WOULD MEAN FOR K STREET: H.R. 1, the legislation passed in the House last week, aimed at ushering sweeping election and government ethics reforms, also holds “significant implications” for those in the influence industry, as laid out in a memo the lobbying firm Covington & Burling sent to its clients Monday in order to describe how the bill, which faces much steeper odds in the Senate, would impact “existing activity and compliance obligations.” — Covington’s Robert Kelner, Robert Lenhard, Brian Smith, Derek Lawlor and Andrew Garrahan note that changes to the threshold for triggering registration requirements under current law, to 10 percent of time spent on lobbying activities from 20 percent, “alone would significantly expand who might be considered a lobbyist.” For example, they write, “just two weeks of intense lobbying activity across a three month period could trigger registration, as could less than one hour of lobbying activity a day across those months.” — The memo also highlights the bill’s attempt to crack down on so-called shadow lobbying by expanding the definition of lobbying activities, which, when combined with the Biden White House’s current ethics pledge, “would also prohibit senior and very senior appointees covered by the order from engaging in any counseling or holding themselves out as available for such counseling for one year from the end of their appointment.” And stricter identification rules for lobbyists, the memo says, would “make it difficult to have general lobbying discussions with covered officials without mentioning the client interests behind the effort.” — Meanwhile, certain proposed changes to the Foreign Agent Registration Act, notably language that would “expand the reach of the law to agents who act outside the United States to influence policy within the United States,” would be “very significant” modifications, the memo reads, though it notes that “it would also be significant that this new language would only apply to the ‘political activities’ trigger and would not apply to the other triggers for registration.” Read the memo here. DCCC RELENTS ON CONSULTANT BAN: “House Democrats’ campaign arm is officially ending its controversial ban on political consultants who work with candidates challenging sitting Democratic incumbents in primaries, clinching a major victory for progressives,” per POLITICO’s Ally Mutnick. New DCCC Chair Sean Maloney (D-N.Y.) “officially reversed the policy on Tuesday morning. He initially pledged to nix it during his campaign for the chair role and finalized it this week. Though it was in place for fewer than two years, it still stymied some liberal primary challengers and incensed the left, which celebrated its end.” TRAVEL INDUSTRY URGES WHITE HOUSE TO COME UP WITH FEDERAL COVID GUIDELINES: “A broad coalition of aviation and travel industry groups urged the White House on Monday to develop federal guidance on Covid-19 health credentials covering both tests and vaccinations,” POLITICO’s Tanya Snyder reports. More than two dozen trade associations argued in a letter to White House Covid-19 recovery team coordinator Jeff Zients that “federal guidance would help combat the virus, ensure the accuracy of health records, protect privacy and boost the economy.” — “The groups reiterated their opposition to a testing requirement before domestic travel and a vaccine requirement for flying,” but called for “uniform guidance” and for the U.S. to be a leader in international talks to establish so-called Covid-19 health credentials. They argued that “the current diverse and fragmented digital health credentials used to implement different countries’ air travel testing requirements risk causing confusion, reducing compliance, and increasing fraud.” — The letter’s signatories include Airlines for America, the U.S. Travel Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Flight Attendants – CWA, Aerospace Industries Association, the American Hotel and Lodging Association and more. BIDEN REVERSES TRUMP’S SANCTIONS RELIEF FOR MINING MAGNATE: “The U.S. will end a temporary sanctions reprieve for Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, according to the State Department, reversing a decision granted in the Trump administration’s final days,” Bloomberg’s Saleha Mohsin, Nick Wadhams, and Michael Kavanagh report. “The Treasury Department under President Donald Trump quietly issued a special license in January that exempted Gertler’s business activities from” sanctions issued in 2017 relating to “corrupt mining and oil deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” after a lobbying campaign from well-connected attorneys like Alan Dershowitz, as detailed by The New York Times last month. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT MONDAY: The New York Times’ Danny Hakim, Maggie Astor and Jo Becker are out with a deep dive on the “civil war” that broke out inside the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project as the super PAC was flooded with cash over the past year and its founders covertly maneuvered to profit off the project. — “The behind-the-scenes moves by the four original founders showed that whatever their political goals, they were also privately taking steps to make money from the earliest stages, and wanted to limit the number of people who would share in the spoils,” they report, which was further upended by revelations about sexual harassment allegations against founder John Weaver , accusations brought to the group as early as last January, according to The Times. | | | | FIND OUT THE LATEST WHISPERS FROM THE WEST WING: Add Transition Playbook to your daily reads to find out what's really happening inside the West Wing, who really has the president's ear, and get the latest scoop from inside cabinet departments and agencies. Track the people, policies and emerging power centers of the Biden administration. Don’t miss out. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — Kris Balderston has joined ACG as a strategic partner. Balderston was previously president of global public affairs at FleishmanHillard and general manager of its D.C. office. He is also a Hillary Clinton alum. — Addar Levi has been hired as deputy general counsel at Treasury. She most recently was general counsel for the Obama Family Office and the Barack Obama Foundation and was the former president’s lawyer on his deals with Netflix and Spotify. — Van Ness Feldman has hired Tanner Johnson as a policy adviser. Johnson previously served as a director of the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation — the grant fund resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which in part funds coastal restoration efforts in Louisiana — and is a former legislative director to Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). — Former federal vaccine expert Rick Bright is joining the Rockefeller Foundation as its senior vice president of pandemic prevention and response. Bright was a longtime senior official at HHS’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority before becoming a whistleblower on the Trump administration’s coronavirus response last year. — Keith Fernandez has joined DoorDash as senior manager for social impact communications. He was previously communications director at TechNet. — David Lasseter, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for countering WMD and former deputy assistant attorney general, has opened Horizons Global Solutions, focusing on consulting and government services. Lasseter is also a former congressional chief of staff, military legislative assistant and currently serves as an intelligence officer in the Marine Corps reserves. — John Feore has joined Jeffrey J. Kimbell & Associates as senior director of health policy & reimbursement strategy. He was previously an associate principal at Avalere Health. — Heather Meier has joined the American Clean Power Association as chief strategy officer. She was most recently senior director of strategy and operations in the external affairs division at The Nature Conservancy and is a General Mills alum. — ACP has also added Vanessa Sciarra as vice president of trade and international competitiveness. She was most recently vice president of legal affairs and trade and investment policy at the National Foreign Trade Council. — Association of American Publishers has named Terrence Hart as general counsel. He was previously assistant general counsel at the U.S. Copyright Office. — J.D. Darr has joined Deloitte as a consultant. He was most recently the director of state government relations & public policy at the Household & Commercial Products Association. — Lauren Cancienne has joined Principal as assistant vice president of government relations. She was most recently vice president of external affairs at Prudential. — Lorin Thomas-Tavel is joining 2U’s executive leadership team as managing director of boot camps. Thomas-Tavel joins from Kaplan, where she served as chief experience officer. | | | None. | | | American Resurgence (PAC)
American Veterans Support Group PAC (Super PAC)
Commonwealth Conservative Fund (Super PAC)
Discourse USA (PAC)
Hero Coalition PAC (PAC)
Hold Them Accountable (Super PAC)
The Hue PAC (PAC)
Lakeville Road Political Action Committee (PAC)
Show Me Change Political Action Committee (Super PAC) | | New Lobbying Registrations | | A1.9 Strategies LLC: O'Brien, Gentry, And Scott LLC Obo Bluesky Innovations Holidings Inc.
A1.9 Strategies LLC: O'Brien, Gentry, & Scott LLC Obo Bounce Imaging
A1.9 Strategies LLC: O'Brien, Gentry, & Scott LLC Obo Riveer
A1.9 Strategies LLC: O'Brien, Gentry & Scott Obo Hdt Global
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP: Dental Trade Alliance
Capitol Counsel, LLC: The Everglades Trust, Inc.
Earth & Water Group: Bogard Agriculture Consultancy Group LLC
Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance: Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance
Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures, LLC: Spirit Aerosystems, Inc.
J M Burkman & Associates: Swyft Health
J M Burkman & Associates: Tko Farms
Natural Resource Results LLC: Ecosystem Restoration Business Association
Stacey Barrack D/B/A Stacey Barrack: Venture Global On Behalf Of The Partnership For Safe Medicines
State Federal Strategies: Boa Vida Healthcare, LLC
Tarplin, Downs & Young, LLC: Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.
Team Hallahan LLC: Roosevelt Group LLC (On Behalf Of Utah Defense Alliance)
The Roosevelt Group: Astro America
Wiley Rein LLP: Venture Technologies Group, LLC
Williams And Jensen, Pllc: Owens & Minor, Inc. | | New Lobbying Terminations | | Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP: Allied Healthcare Products, Inc.
Epplin Strategic Planning: The Leadership Conference Education Fund
Harlow Government Relations LLC: American Medical Association
Sustainable Strategies Dc: Borough Of Carlisle, Pa
Sustainable Strategies Dc: City Of Lansing, Mi
Sustainable Strategies Dc: City Of Weirton, Wv
Sustainable Strategies Dc: Manufacturing Alliance Of Communities (MAC)
Townsend Public Affairs: City Of Carson | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
