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Presented by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Earthjustice: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | Presented by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Earthjustice | With Daniel Lippman INDUSTRY ASKS WHITE HOUSE TO SET A DATE FOR PLAN TO LIFT TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS: A coalition of travel industry leaders pressed the Biden administration on Tuesday to come up with a plan by May 1 to lift travel restrictions on most inbound international travel, with a goal of welcoming international travelers again sometime this summer. — In a letter to Jeff Zients, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, the cohort said it wants to work with the administration to develop a defined “risk-based, data-driven roadmap” to lift international travel restrictions first put in place last spring at the outset of the pandemic. — The industry said such a plan should maintain current testing requirements but exempt vaccinated travelers, update CDC guidance for vaccinated people that addresses safe travel, set out “clear benchmarks and a transparent framework” for lifting travel restrictions and begin to address curbing travel bans with other nations at June’s G-7 meeting, among other things. — The letter, whose signatories include the U.S. Travel Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Airlines for America , the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Aerospace Industries Association, paints an “urgent” crisis for the state of the travel industry that the coalition says can begin to rebound if travel is allowed to resume by July 4. FORMER BECERRA CHIEF JUMPS TO FEROX: Ferox Strategies has hired Debra Dixon, a former longtime aide to new HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, away from her previous firm TwinLogic Strategies, where she lobbied since 2016. Dixon worked in Becerra’s congressional office for 16 years and served as his chief of staff for nearly a decade before jumping to the Department of Education and then private practice. She’s bringing Microsoft with her to Ferox, and will also work with the firm’s new clients, drugmaker Eli Lilly and the Seasonal Employment Alliance. | | A message from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Earthjustice: It’s time to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline. It is operating without a permit and in violation of key environmental laws, needlessly endangering the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for the sake of oil industry profits. The Biden administration can be on the right side of history. Tell President Biden to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline. Click here or text NoDAPL to 43428. | | | Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Send K Street tips and gossip: coprysko@politico.com. And follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. FIRST IN PI — GLOBAL STRATEGY GROUP LAUNCHING DIGITAL AGENCY: Global Strategy Group tomorrow will launch a new in-house creative and digital agency called The L@B. The group is bringing on New York advertising vet Rob Lee as creative director, and Global Strategy Group’s Emily Williams will serve as media director for the new venture, which will offer “high-level creative direction, full-service video and content production, and powerful digital media strategy, planning and buying capabilities.” It will also work with the firm’s communications and public affairs and research practices to advise clients ranging from large corporations to startups and advocacy groups. FORMER ACTING DHS CHIEF STARTS HIS OWN FIRM: “Chad Wolf , the former acting secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration, is launching a consulting firm to provide companies, NGOs and government agencies with advice on homeland and national security matters,” POLITICO’s Daniel Lippman reports. “The new firm is called Wolf Global Advisors , and Wolf is launching it with three former other senior Trump DHS officials: former acting chief of staff Scott Erickson, former deputy chief of staff Tyler Houlton and legislative affairs director Beth Spivey.” — Wolf, who lobbied for Wexler | Walker for about a decade before he joined the Trump administration, tells Daniel that “he already has a few clients signed up, but declined to name them unless one of the principals at the firm has to register as a lobbyist for them,” and wouldn’t rule out working for a foreign government — though not in a capacity that would trigger FARA registration. BIDEN NATIONAL SECURITY HANDS’ CORPORATE CLIENTS: “Half a dozen senior members of President Joe Biden ’s foreign policy and national security team worked as consultants for Microsoft before joining the administration — including a number who advised the tech giant on cybersecurity,” our Theodoric Meyer and Eric Geller report. — “Financial disclosure forms made public over the past few months, including ones for White House officials released on Saturday, reveal that Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Linda Thomas-Greenfield , the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as well as two of Biden’s nominees for top State Department posts, Wendy Sherman and Uzra Zeya, all consulted for” the tech giant among other corporate clients. — “As some of Biden’s top foreign affairs advisers, they are now confronting the issue of cybersecurity from the other side — as one of the biggest national security challenges facing the government.” DRUG LOBBY FEARS BECOMING ‘PIGGY BANK’ FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PACKAGE: “The pharmaceutical industry is preparing to take a hit in Democrats’ next major legislative package — and the long-untouchable powerhouse is racing to contain the damage,” POLITICO's Susannah Luthi and Sarah Owermohle report. “Democratic lawmakers are weighing whether to include drug pricing measures that could extract tens of billions of dollars from the industry, or potentially more, to help pay for a massive infrastructure bill they could try to pass along party lines this summer.” — “House Democratic leaders are still examining whether their negotiation bill … would satisfy the complex requirements for reconciliation, which they recently used to deliver the $1.9 trillion Covid relief plan along party lines.” — Some industry lobbyists, meanwhile, “believe that enough Senate moderates may have reservations about the House bill and the way it would, for example, limit the maximum negotiated price to what’s paid for the drug in other developed countries. Those lobbyists also believe the industry’s hand has been strengthened by the rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines that can bring the pandemic under control.” ADVOCACY GROUPS TO PUT UP TO 8 FIGURES BEHIND EQUALITY ACT PUSH: A coalition of more than a dozen advocacy groups today launched a new campaign aimed at pressuring Senate lawmakers to support the Equality Act, legislation that would provide explicit and permanent protections for LGBTQ people, women, people of color and people of all faiths. Freedom & Opportunity For All will start with an initial investment of $4 million and grow to eight figures, and include lobbying efforts as well as national ad and social media campaigns. — The coalition includes the Center for American Progress, the Equality Federation, Freedom for All Americans, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, GLSEN, the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, National Black Justice Coalition, National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Center for Transgender Equality, National LGBTQ Task Force, National Women's Law Center, PFLAG National, SAGE, Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, and the Trevor Project. CHARLES SCHWAB LEAVES THE CHAMBER: Brokerage giant Charles Schwab has left the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports, a move that comes as the firm rebuked partisan extremism in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection and shuttered its PAC, and as conservatives in Washington seethe over perceived abandonment by the powerful, traditionally GOP-allied business lobby. — “Charles Schwab said its move did not have anything to do with the Chamber’s recent political actions. However, the firm, whose millions of clients have trillions of dollars in assets, hinted that the move was linked to its own decision to shut down its PAC. ‘Our decision to terminate our membership with the Chamber is unrelated to their political activities. As you will have seen from our recent decision to discontinue our PAC, we have been reconsidering how we engage with policymakers,’ the company said.”
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| | | — Adrian Boafo is leaving House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office after three years to join Oracle as director of government affairs, Huddle reports. Boafo most recently served as Hoyer’s campaign manager. — Evan Swarztrauber is joining Clout Public Affairs, a division of Axiom Strategies, as director, focusing on tech and telecom policy and communications. He was previously a policy adviser to former FCC Chair Ajit Pai. — The Ethics and Public Policy Center ’s HHS Accountability Project has added David Gortler as a fellow and Rachel Morrison as a policy analyst. Gortler was most recently a senior adviser to the FDA commissioner, and Morrison was most recently an attorney adviser and special assistant to the general counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. | | | None.
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| | | Assume Deer Dead (PAC)
Civic Data PAC (Super PAC)
North Carolina Freedom Fund (Super PAC)
SRT PAC (Super PAC) | | New Lobbying Registrations | | American Consolidated Natural Resources, Inc.: American Consolidated Natural Resources, Inc.
Ant Group Co., Ltd.: Ant Group Co., Ltd.
Bellevue Strategies, LLC: Upper Darby Township
Capitol Integration: Picogrid
Capitol Integration: Solute
Cavarocchi Ruscio Dennis Associates, L.L.C.: American Heart Association
Centerstone: Centerstone
Commonwealth Consulting Partners: Carnegie Library Of Homestead
Conaway Graves Group, LLC: Williams And Jensen, Pllc On Behalf Of Ripple Labs, Inc.
Dc Legislative And Regulatory Services, Inc.: Vita Inclinata Technologies, Inc.
Elias Walker, Inc.: California Fresh Fruit Association
Empire Consulting Group: 3Sixty
Ferox Strategies: Eli Lilly And Company
Ferox Strategies: Microsoft Corporation
Ferox Strategies: Peraton Corporation
Ferox Strategies: Seasonal Employment Alliance
Franklin Square Group, LLC: D-Wave Government Inc.
Franklin Square Group, LLC: Semi (Fka Semiconductor Equipment And Materials International)
Groundswell Strategy LLC: Farmers Pride Inc. Dba Bell & Evans
Hawley LLC: Clark Street Associates On Behalf Of Mcube, Inc.
Jones Walker, LLP: Freeport-Mcmoran
Port Side Strategies, LLC: Sixteen Thirty Fund
Redwire Space, Inc.: Redwire Space, Inc.
Stapleton & Associates, LLC: Cfd Research Corporation
Summit Strategies Government Affairs LLC: Friends Of Frog Ferry
West Front Strategies LLC: Boeing Company
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING : The Biden administration is more than halfway through its first 100 days and is now facing a growing crisis at the border and escalating violence against Asian Americans, while navigating the pandemic and ongoing economic challenges. Add Transition Playbook to your daily reads to find out what actions are being considered, as well the internal state of play inside the West Wing and across the administration. Track the people, policies, and emerging power centers of the Biden administration. Don't miss out. Subscribe today. | | | | |
| | New Lobbying Terminations | | None.
| | A message from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Earthjustice: The Dakota Access Pipeline is dangerous, doesn’t have the permits it needs, and is an affront to tribal sovereignty. A federal judge ordered the government to consider the risks to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the environment. Tell President Biden to respect the law and tribal rights by shutting down the Dakota Access Pipeline. Click here or text NoDAPL to 43428. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
