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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 CHIPS ON THE TABLE: Industry leaders are making one final push in Washington this week to ensure that Congress’ legislation to boost the semiconductor industry and authorize billions more in funding for the sciences makes it over the finish line and to President Joe Biden ’s desk before lawmakers head out of town for the August recess, in spite of mounting criticism from both sides of the aisle . — The effort got a boost today from the White House, which hosted a virtual roundtable with executives, labor leaders and Biden administration economic and national security officials to tout “the importance of passing the Chips Act to bolster America’s competitive edge, manufacturing power, and national security.” — Notably, the participants in the White House event were not major chipmakers themselves, some of whom have caught flak on both the right and left in their fevered push for what critics say amount to “corporate welfare.” Instead, the White House invited labor leaders and executives from aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, medical device company Medtronic and engine maker Cummins. — “This CHIPS money is not a subsidy for big companies to make them more profitable or so they have more cash for stock buybacks or to pad their bottom line or to invest in other countries,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said during the event. “This is about investing in the United States of America, in our workers, in our economy and in our national security.” In his closing remarks, Biden emphasized “guardrails” in the legislation to “protect taxpayer dollars and interest of the American workers.” — Chipmakers themselves have sought to push back on critics too. In a blog post Friday , one of the semiconductor industry’s biggest trade groups swatted back at critics conflating the package’s total direct spending and authorizations for its science funding components. The bill’s $52 billion in subsidies and $24 billion in industry tax incentives, the Semiconductor Industry Association’s David Isaacs wrote, is “badly needed” by the industry but “will return huge benefits to American businesses, workers, and consumers.” — Meanwhile, computing giant IBM is flying in dozens of executives this week for more than 130 meetings on the Hill, including 23 at the member level. Attendees will include Gary Cohn, IBM’s vice chair (and former Trump National Economic Council director), Darío Gil, IBM’s senior vice president and director of research, and Chris Padilla, the company’s vice president for government and regulatory affairs. The group will hear from Raimondo tomorrow morning. — “This is the moment where we can see, you know, a turnaround of the semiconductor industry in the United States,” Gil said on a call with reporters this afternoon, even as he acknowledged that new domestic chip factories as a result of money contained in the CHIPS-plus package are still three to five years down the line. “This particular legislation is something that will have an impact in that kind of … medium-term horizon,” he said. — Cohn also conceded that the billions in funding for chipmakers “will not solve” immediate chip shortages and supply chain issues. “It's a downpayment to start, but if we don't start, we can never attack this problem,” he said, adding that “every one of our allies — both allied nations and hostile, combatant nations — know how important they are and that's why they're trying to attract the manufacturing to their countries. The United States has been one of the few countries that has not been aggressively pursuing chip manufacturers.” Good afternoon and welcome to PI, where your host got a kick while browsing recent FARA filings out of Arena Strategy Group's apparent new branding proposal for Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com . And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko .
| | | | INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY . | | | | | AIPAC’S SUPER PAC SPENDING COMES TO A HEAD IN MICHIGAN: “The top issues driving Democratic voters right now include rising prices, abortion rights, gun violence and threats to democracy. But the top spender in Democratic primaries is singularly focused on Israel — and fights over the issue are rending the party in district after district,” POLITICO’s Elena Schneider reports. — “The latest one is a deep-blue slice of suburban Detroit, where the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, is showering Michigan’s 11th District with ads boosting Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.). Spending through the group’s super PAC has topped $22 million across nine safe-seat Democratic primaries so far, paying for slashing negative ads against a number of largely progressive candidates.” — “But in a redistricting year twist, Stevens — a former Obama administration official who flipped a GOP-held swing seat in 2018 — is running in her primary against fellow Rep. Andy Levin , who authored legislation to make a two-state solution official U.S. policy and has criticized the ‘creeping annexation ’ of Palestinian territory, after Michigan lost a congressional seat. Levin is from one of the most prominent Jewish families in American politics, the son of former Rep. Sander Levin and nephew of the late Sen. Carl Levin.” — “The super PAC’s spending has outstripped all other groups in Democratic primaries so far this year, per OpenSecrets, and has helped six AIPAC-preferred candidates to victory in deep-blue seats, compared to just one loss, with more primaries to come. … Now, the Levin-Stevens primary is on track to become one of the group’s most expensive investments of 2022 — and, by far, the most personal one.” NAM GOES ON THE AIR TO BEAT BACK THE LATEST RECONCILIATION PUSH: The National Association of Manufacturers has launched a six-figure ad blitz in the nation’s capital aimed at toppling the latest iteration of Democrats’ party line reconciliation package, the centerpiece of which are drug pricing reforms the trade group is assailing as “a hidden tax on manufacturers that harms innovation, competitiveness and R&D investments in new cures.” — The ads will air on broadcast and cable in D.C. ahead of a critical week for the fate of the drug pricing proposal, which the drug industry has fought for decades and which is awaiting a ruling by the Senate parliamentarian on whether it’s allowed under procedural guidelines. (As fate would have it for the trade group, it now has one very important captive audience member !) — The spot focuses on the industry’s assertion that allowing Medicare to negotiate the cost of certain drugs would hinder innovation, though CBO this month estimated that the provision would hinder about 15 new drug approvals over 30 years. Under current law, CBO projects 1,300 drugs could be approved over the same period of time. — “At a time when manufacturers are already facing extraordinary economic pressures, the Senate should be focused on bolstering our industry’s competitiveness, not undermining it. We are calling on senators to vote ‘no’ on reconciliation and stand with manufacturers and the hardworking Americans who are integral to battling this pandemic and discovering future cures,” NAM President Jay Timmons said in a statement. THE LATEST ROE FALLOUT: “The demise of Roe v. Wade is prompting intense lobbying from IVF centers to keep the process from getting tangled up in a raft of new abortion bans and restrictions,” Axios’ Adriel Bettelheim reports, in the latest signal “that the elimination of a federal right to abortion is subsuming other forms of reproductive care .” — “IVF interests — led by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine — are trying to persuade red state legislatures to adopt language that would exempt IVF from trigger laws that ban or restrict abortion. ‘We are in for a prolonged period of uncertainty,’ said Sean Tipton , the organization's chief advocacy, policy and development officer. ‘It's not just what legislatures decide. There will be court challenges to let the judicial branch decide what the legislation says.’” — “One possible model Tipton and other IVF backers cite is Oklahoma’s strict abortion law, which prohibits the procedure from the moment of fertilization but does not apply to embryos created in vitro. Louisiana is another state that's drawn attention for the way it gives personhood status to embryos but allows embryos to be discarded if they are not viable, per Governing magazine . Grassroots lobbying at the state level is expected to intensify as IVF clinics are flooded with calls from concerned patients .”
| | | — Sandy Sussman has joined the Pacific Life government and policy affairs team as associate vice president and head of federal government affairs. Sussman was previously at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and is a Bill Foster alum. — Tim Daniels is joining the federal affairs team at Tyson Foods as senior manager of government affairs. He most recently was deputy chief of staff and counsel to House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee acting ranking member Andy Harris (R-Md.). — Lt. Col. Chris Mitchell has returned to the National Guard Bureau, where he will become chief of public affairs plans and policy. He most recently was a spokesman at the Defense Department, where he was principal press lead for issues related to homeland defense, the U.S. Northern Command, and counter-WMD. — Nareit has named Ayris Scales senior vice president of social responsibility and global initiatives. She most recently was CEO of the Walker’s Legacy Foundation and is a D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser administration alum. — Dylan Waguespack will be the next chief executive officer of True Colors United, the organization that Cyndi Lauper co-founded to find solutions to homelessness among LGBTQ young people. He previously was chief policy officer at the organization and is a Mercury Media alum. — The White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director has named Google executive Camille Stewart Gloster as a deputy national cyber director focused on workforce programs and supply chain security issues, per Axios. She was most recently global head of product security strategy at Google.
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