With and Daniel Lippman SURVEYING THE ABORTION LOBBYING LANDSCAPE: Monday night’s bombshell publication by my colleagues Josh Gerstein and Alex Ward of a draft majority opinion that would strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision reverberated immediately across the country as lawmakers and advocacy groups either praised the initial ruling or lambasted it. — Lobbyists working on abortion rights issues told PI today that they were largely unsurprised by the vote count even if the publication of the draft opinion caught groups somewhat off guard. While some policymakers immediately revved into action promising to vote on legislation to codify Roe, which does not have the votes to pass the Senate, there could be an increased focus on lobbying around other reproductive health policies, like access to contraceptives, federal family planning funding or funding to fight STDs, they said. — Still, while abortion rights is among the most contentious political issues in the country, abortion does not attract nearly the level of lobbying expenditures as tech, pharma or financial services firms — some of which retain dozens of lobbying shops and spend millions to influence lawmakers each quarter — according to lobbying disclosures. — Planned Parenthood’s national arm reported spending just over $100,000 on lobbying last quarter, and more than $800,000 in all of 2021, with another $243,000 in spending by several subsidiaries. The Center for Reproductive Rights, another one of the top abortion rights groups, reported spending $370,000 to lobby Washington in 2021, all of which was done in-house. Abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America spent just $110,000 on lobbying at the federal level last year, disclosures show. Of the main abortion rights groups and major anti-abortion groups, only Planned Parenthood retains outside lobbyists. — Abortion rights advocates spend significantly more on influence efforts like grassroots activation and campaigns — just Monday, Planned Parenthood, NARAL and EMILY’s List announced plans to collectively pour $150 million into organizing and advertising efforts ahead of November’s midterms, an acknowledgment of how the Supreme Court is likely to formally rule this summer and in the wake of Republican legislatures across the country significantly curtailing abortion access. That’s more than double their collective political expenditures during the 2020 cycle, according to data from OpenSecrets. — Data from OpenSecrets also shows that anti-abortion backers approached an all-time high in lobbying spending last year, topping $1 million for the fifth straight year. One of the top spenders, the Susan B. Anthony List, reported dropping $290,000 into lobbying in the first quarter of 2022, its highest quarterly total ever. During the 2020 cycle, OpenSecrets data shows, the group doled out around $16 million on political spending. — The next highest anti-abortion spender, the National Right to Life Committee, spent just $80,000 on federal lobbying last quarter, down from the six-figure sums it routinely dropped during the Obama administration and during the confirmation battle for now-Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020. Barrett is among those who initially voted with the majority to overturn Roe. — Carol Tobias, Right to Life’s president, said in an interview that overturning Roe would jump-start the real work for anti-abortion groups, which would then have to engage in “basically … 50 state battles” while fighting for the legislative filibuster to remain intact in the Senate in order to prevent bills that would codify abortion rights. The group also hopes that federal bills restricting abortions “would get a better hearing than they have under current leadership” in a post-Roe world, she said, adding that Right to Life doesn’t expect to change its existing midterm strategy much. Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. FIRST IN PI — NARRATIVE ADDS 4: Public affairs shop Narrative Strategies has hired Dave Dziok away from Koch Industries to become managing director for the firm, along with RNC creative director Kelly Johnson to expand Narrative’s creative team. Dziok has spent over half a decade at Koch Industries as communications director, focused on reputation management, business and advocacy communications, and public affairs, and before that worked at Edelman and for former Rep. Michele Bachmann. He’s the third addition to Narrative’s senior leadership team this year. — The firm also added two new associates: Sophie Rosen, who joins from the Bipartisan Policy Center, and Sydney Phillips, who was previously an intern at Narrative, as well as USDA and the House Agriculture Committee. CONSUMER BANKERS TAP NEW CHIEF: “The Consumer Bankers Association has named Lindsey Johnson, president of the U.S. Mortgage Insurers, as its new president and chief executive,” POLITICO’s Kate Davidson reports. — “Johnson, who has served as head of the mortgage insurers group since 2015, will take over for retiring CBA President Richard Hunt on July 5, the group said in an announcement Tuesday. Prior to joining USMI, Johnson served as a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers and was a Republican aide on the Senate Banking Committee.” — “Johnson will take the helm of the group at a time when the banking industry is facing intense competition from upstart technology companies and is bracing for an overhaul of anti-redlining rules under the Community Reinvestment Act — issues that are front and center for CBA’s membership. CBA counts the country’s biggest retail banks among its members, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, PNC and Capital One.” — “The group has been at the center of some of the banking industry’s biggest battles with lawmakers and regulators under Hunt’s leadership, most recently the fight over new IRS reporting requirements in the Biden administration’s social spending bill. The provision, which drew opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and some House Democrats, was eventually removed” before Manchin’s opposition tanked the package altogether. FORMER FDA OFFICIAL TO PHILLIP MORRIS: Tobacco giant Philip Morris International has tapped Keagan Lenihan , who served as chief of staff at the FDA during the Trump administration, to lead the company’s D.C. office, handling its U.S.-based external affairs efforts as FDA weighs which vaping products it will allow to stay on the market. — Lenihan, who was an aide to former congressman and HHS Secretary Tom Price, will be vice president of government affairs and public policy for the company. She served as vice president of operations at medical device company Altoida before joining Philip Morris. — “I am delighted to join forces with PMI in their mission to move away from cigarettes and help current smokers who otherwise would not quit switch to less harmful alternatives while ensuring we protect youth,” Lenihan said in a statement, referencing the company’s efforts to move toward products outside the tobacco and nicotine sectors. The company announced last year it had acquired over 74 percent of the market shares of British inhaler manufacturer Vectura.
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