BIG TECH’S FAVORITE LAWMAKER: “It’s hard to find lawmakers willing to publicly side with the big tech companies these days. But Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft have a powerful champion left on Capitol Hill ,” POLITICO’s Emily Birnbaum reports: Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state. — “And as Congress gets increasingly close to a vote on an anti-monopoly bill that would rein in the tech titans’ power, the lawmaker from Amazon and Microsoft’s home state could be a major reason that it fails. DelBene has used her perch as chair of the business-friendly New Democrats caucus to push back on some of the most aggressive efforts to regulate or restrain Silicon Valley, which she claims would hurt the economy and hamstring the tech industry.” — “Now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are under pressure to hold a vote this summer on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, S. 2992 (117) — a bill that would prevent tech companies from using their gatekeeper power to disadvantage competitors.” — “And the tech industry has DelBene in their corner, leading opposition in the House. ‘We love Representative DelBene,’ said Rob Atkinson, founder and president of the tech-funded think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation . (DelBene is an ‘honorary co-chair’ of the think tank.) Atkinson said DelBene is a key proponent of policies that favor ‘innovation.’” — But while some of DelBene’s colleagues criticize her relationship with the industry, “DelBene — who has also condemned antitrust efforts in Europe against tech companies and spent years pushing privacy legislation backed by industry — argues she is an even-handed lawmaker with a special understanding of the tech industry from her 12 years as an executive at Microsoft, and startups before that.” GOP MEGADONORS TURNED OFF BY JAN. 6 HEARINGS: “Support from some of the Republican Party’s biggest donors for a 2024 White House run by former President Donald Trump is dwindling, especially after damaging new details of his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, were revealed at a hearing Tuesday by the House select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol,” CNBC’ s Brian Schwartz reports. — “Republican financiers and their advisors have been privately meeting since the committee started to release the initial findings of its probe in a series of public hearings earlier this month, according to interviews with top GOP fundraisers who have helped the party raise millions of dollars. Most of the people asked not to be named because they didn’t want to provoke retribution from Trump or his allies.” — “The people have been discussing the November midterms and who they’re going to support in 2024. One name that doesn’t often get brought up as a potential presidential candidate is Trump, these people explained. — “‘Donors are very concerned that Trump is the one Republican who can lose in 2024,’ Eric Levine, an attorney and longtime GOP fundraiser, said after the hearing Tuesday featuring testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. ‘I think donors were already moving away from Trump,’ he noted.” ACROSS THE POND: “The biggest crypto exchange in the U.S. is trying to convince EU legislators to keep it off the hook for investors’ bad bets on the market,” POLITICO Europe’s Bjarke Smith-Meyer reports. — “The focus is a bill that will regulate the bloc’s market in crypto assets, dubbed MiCA. Coinbase’s chief policy officer, Faryar Shirzad, flew to the EU capital from Washington last week to get a lightning round of lobbying in before legislators meet next Thursday to iron out policy divisions among European Commission officials, MEPs and EU capitals.” — “Given the high stakes and ongoing disagreements, these talks may still need time to conclude. But Shirzad and his team are taking no chances, as Coinbase and other crypto companies harbor concerns over who will be held responsible if and when investors lose money when digital assets collapse in value.” — “The push comes after U.S. investors filed multiple lawsuits against Coinbase in recent months on claims that the exchange lured them into a false sense of security when buying certain so-called stablecoins — which aim to stay on par with a national currency like the U.S. dollar — before they crashed in value.” — “In Coinbase’s view, however, it’s the company issuing the crypto asset that should face the courts. Not the exchange. ‘It's critical not to put platforms ... such as ourselves in a position where we bear liability for things that are outside of our control,’ Shirzad told POLITICO during his two-day visit to Brussels, declining to comment on the lawsuits in question. ‘Our goal is to make sure that the liability rests on the right place.’” 2 MORE JUMP FROM SQUIRE TO DENTONS: Callan Smith and Nicole Golden are the latest lobbyists from Squire Patton Boggs to follow a number of their former colleagues to Dentons following the departure of former Rep. Joe Crowley. Smith will be an associate with the health care group, while Golden will be an associate managing director in the public policy practice. Smith previously worked in the New York Executive Chamber and is a Max Baucus and Senate Finance alum. CORRECTION: Wednesday’s edition of Influence misstated Fulcrum Public Affairs’ work for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber opposes privacy legislation that includes a private right of action. PI regrets the error.
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