TECH CRACKDOWN MEETS PUSHBACK FROM VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS: “A bipartisan legislative effort to rein in the nation’s largest tech companies is facing fresh resistance from a faction of Senate Democrats over complaints the measure could threaten their chances of holding their slim majority,” 10 people familiar with the matter told POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn and Emily Birnbaum. — “The internal opposition comes as Democratic leaders are pushing for a vote on the bill by summer, in an effort to pass what has become a central element of the party’s broader antitrust agenda. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act, S. 2992 (117) — led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — would ban major tech firms like Amazon and Google from favoring their products over their competitors.” — “Yet in the days since Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Klobuchar he would hold a floor vote as early as next month, several Democratic senators have privately expressed deep reservations about voting for the legislation, particularly with a midterm election looming, in their conversations with Schumer and other Democratic offices.” — “Tech lobbyists have claimed the bill could harm popular products like Amazon Prime or Google Docs. And among vulnerable lawmakers, there’s growing concern that the sweeping legislation is too contentious for an election year and would eat up valuable time Democrats should instead be spending addressing voters’ core concerns. ‘We should be focused on items that will help consumers deal with rising costs,’ said one Senate aide who criticized the legislation as a ‘pet project’ with little political payoff. ‘Nobody can quite figure out why it would be a priority.’” — “Supporters of the legislation chalked up the last-minute anxiety from vulnerable Democrats to lobbying by the major tech companies, which have spent tens of millions of dollars campaigning against the bill.” — “‘Anytime a corporate accountability bill gathers steam, the concern trolling heats up and some members try to block a vote because they don’t want to alienate powerful companies,’ said Dan Geldon, former chief of staff to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — who has led the push to break up the largest tech companies. ‘But the idea that a popular bipartisan bill like this would hurt any of the re-elects doesn’t pass a straight face test. The polling is incredibly clear on that.’” CLUBS TRADE GROUP LEADER STEPS DOWN: Henry Wallmeyer is stepping down as president and chief executive of the National Club Association, which represents private clubs such as yacht clubs, country clubs and athletic clubs, after seven years as its leader. The trade group announced that Joe Trauger, who has served as the organization’s vice president of government relations, will serve as interim president and CEO while the group searches for a permanent replacement. CRYPTO MINERS GEAR UP FOR CLIMATE SCRUTINY: “Democrats in Congress are ramping up pressure on cryptocurrency firms to show that Bitcoin is worth the wattage, amid concerns that minting digital money has become an environmental disaster,” POLITICO’s Sam Sutton reports. — Scrutiny from lawmakers including Warren “and the leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is triggering lobbying on behalf of so-called crypto miners who are using an escalating amount of computing and electricity to extract valuable digital tokens from the blockchain.” — “Critics say the practice, which grants miners digital currency in exchange for validating transactions, contributes to rising energy costs and global warming because of its use of power generated by fossil fuels. Bitcoin alone eats up about as much electricity as Ukraine, according to a University of Cambridge estimate.” — “With crypto mining now a multibillion-dollar business, the industry is fighting to make the case that lawmakers shouldn’t stand in the way of an economic boom. ‘It’s not up to the government to decide if Bitcoin is important to the country’s future — that’s the market,’ said Bitfury CEO Brian Brooks, who served as a top Trump bank regulator before taking the helm of the crypto mining company. ‘The market has spoken.’” — “Deciding how to address Bitcoin’s environmental fallout is the latest policy conundrum that lawmakers and regulators face with the crypto market now worth $2 trillion. … Publicly-traded mining companies like Marathon Digital Holdings and HIVE Blockchain Technologies have bulked up their lobbying presence in recent months to make the case for the industry’s job creation and clean energy efforts. The Bitcoin Mining Council, an industry group, is trying to recast mining firms as leaders in clean energy, claiming that nearly 60 percent of their power mix now comes from sustainable sources.” DUNN’S RETURN ADDS NEW TWIST TO BIDEN-BEZOS FEUD: “As the White House this month weighed how hard to engage Amazon founder Jeff Bezos over his criticism of its economic policies, it brought back a senior aide whose firm does work for the company,” our Hailey Fuchs and Emily Birnbaum report. — “Anita Dunn rejoined the administration as a top adviser this month from the powerful communications shop she co-founded, SKDK. The Democratic firm, which has produced a number of current and former administration officials, has a host of major clients in business and politics. One of them is Amazon.” — “SKDK provided help with a public affairs campaign during Amazon’s efforts to establish a headquarters in New York City, and more recently conducted advocacy around the JEDI, or Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, contract, a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the Department of Defense.” — “A White House official said that Dunn, specifically, did not serve on an Amazon account and added that under the administration’s ethics pledge, Dunn would be recused from matters involving SKDK or clients that she worked for in the previous two years. However, she would not need to recuse herself from matters involving Amazon, the official said.” SKDK partner Jill Zuckman did not comment on the firm’s work for Amazon, but maintained that “we are not lobbyists and we have not, and do not, lobby the federal government.”
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