With Daniel Lippman FERRIER DECAMPS FOR IRI: Antonia Ferrier has left the GOP government affairs shop CGCN Group, where she helped lead its strategic comms operations. Ferrier is joining the International Republican Institute, the global pro-democracy nonprofit, as its vice president for external affairs. The move is part of a series of changes to IRI’s executive leadership team that includes elevating Kimber Shearer to executive vice president and Hallam Ferguson returning to the organization as vice president for global operations. — Ferrier joined CGCN in 2019 from Definers Public Affairs (the firm has since rebranded as Bullpen Strategy Group) along with CGCN’s current co-chief executive Matt Rhoades. Before that, she spent nearly four years as a staff director and spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell along with stints at Forbes Tate Partners and in the offices of former Sen. Orrin Hatch and former House Speaker John Boehner. — In an interview, Ferrier told PI that while she loved her time at CGCN, when she was approached by IRI President Dan Twining about joining the organization — with whom she served as an election observer in Ukraine several years ago — it was an offer she felt she couldn’t refuse, given rising geopolitical and democratic tensions across the globe in countries like Ukraine, China and Kenya. — “Antonia has been a big part of CGCN’s growth,” Rhoades said in a statement. “She will be missed, but we wish her well in her new venture.” Good afternoon and welcome to PI . What’s going on out there? Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. LAWSUIT ACCUSES R STREET OF PAY DISCRIMINATION: A former staffer at the R Street Institute has sued the free-market think tank, claiming that she was paid less than men in the organization who held similar roles before her or who had less experience and was retaliated against and ultimately fired after raising pay equity concerns regarding herself and a direct report, according to court documents. — According to a complaint filed in May in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Lauren Rollins joined R Street Institute in 2017 and moved up the ranks in the think tank’s editorial department, eventually serving as associate vice president of research programs. Rollins alleges that even as she accepted promotions and took on more work as the result of departures from the organization which “effectively consolidated the duties of three former Executive Team positions onto” Rollins, she was still paid less than her predecessor in the role. — According to the complaint, Rollins began to run into trouble as she sought to negotiate a cost of living adjustment and raise for one of her direct reports last summer. Rollins alleges that a conversation about the raise with Erica Schoder, R Street’s senior vice president of operations and finance, became “extremely contentious,” and that Rollins brought up other alleged pay equity disparities. — The conflict escalated from there, according to the suit, resulting in a sit-down with Rollins, Schoder and R Street President Eli Lehrer during which Rollins learned that one other female staffer would have her pay increased following evaluations of her salary compared with a male direct report. The suit accuses Lehrer of not wanting to inform the female staffer of “pay equity reasons” for her raise, and Schoder pushing back on Rollins’ dissension. — Shortly after, Rollins accused Schoder of “withholding information from her that was designed to set her up for failure,” criticizing her job performance and intervening in a “personnel matter” involving Rollins’ direct reports. Rollins and Schoder sought the help of an executive coach in an effort to reset their relationship, according to the suit, but the executive coach withdrew from that arrangement, and Schoder fired Rollins days later. — Rollins accuses R Street of violating federal and Massachusetts state equal pay and discrimination laws, and has asked the court to award her lost wages as well as compensatory and punitive damages. — In a response filed in July , R Street denied the vast majority of Rollins’ accusations and contended that its “employment decisions, at all relevant times, were based on legitimate non- discriminatory and non-retaliatory reasons and were consistent with applicable principles of law.” R Street is asking that Rollins’ suit be dismissed with prejudice and that the court enter judgment in R Street’s favor, along with attorneys’ fees and costs. Attorneys for neither Rollins nor R Street returned requests for comment. TWITTER WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINT IGNITES FRESH HILL SCRUTINY: “Top Democrats and Republicans in Congress are investigating a former Twitter security chief’s explosive new whistleblower complaint, instigating new political scrutiny of the social network’s data security practices and defenses against foreign influence,” The Washington Post’s Cat Zakrzewski reports. — Peiter Zatko, a famous hacker who was brought on to help the platform address security lapses, alleges in an explosive complaint obtained by the Post that Twitter “has ‘extreme, egregious deficiencies’ in its cybersecurity defenses, as well as weak efforts to fight spam.” Tellingly, “lawmakers from both parties appeared united in response to the allegations, saying they raise national security and privacy concerns that need closer examination.” — Reps. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the top two lawmakers on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, “said if the whistleblower’s allegations are true, they ‘reaffirm’ the need for Congress to pass consumer privacy legislation to safeguard Americans’ data. The committee is ‘assessing next steps,’ they said in a joint statement.” — “The offices of the top lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said they have had early discussions with the whistleblower. ‘If these claims are accurate, they may show dangerous data privacy and security risks for Twitter users around the world,’ Durbin said in a statement. The Senate Intelligence Committee also received the complaint and is working to set up a meeting with Zatko, spokeswoman Rachel Cohen said.” SPEAKING OF PRIVACY LEGISLATION: “Congress has never been closer to passing a federal data privacy law — and the brokers that profit from information on billions of people are opening their wallets to nudge the legislation in their favor,” POLITICO’s Alfred Ng reports. — “Five prominent data brokers boosted their collective spending on lobbying by roughly 11 percent in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period a year ago, according to lobbying disclosure records reviewed by POLITICO. The $180,000 lobbying bump came as House Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise on a bipartisan bill aimed at giving consumers new powers to limit the collection and sharing of their data.” — “The brokers, including U.K.-based data giant RELX and credit reporting agency TransUnion, want changes to the bill — such as an easing of data-sharing restrictions that RELX says would hamper investigations of crimes. They also want clearer permission to use third-party data for advertising purposes,” asks that privacy advocates have criticized. — “Hundreds of companies have reported lobbying on the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, H.R. 8152 (117), including drugmakers, nonprofits and tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon. But no industry is potentially more affected by the bill than the data brokers, which rely largely on third-party data — information collected by companies that users have no direct relationship with.”
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