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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 and Theodoric Meyer FARA FRIDAY: The Qatari government has hired yet another U.S. lobbying firm, its fifth new firm so far this year. Rubin Turnbull & Associates , one of the top shops in Florida, will assist the Qatari Embassy in government relations and PR in the state “to promote commercial, philanthropic, academic, cultural and other exchanges to advance the mutual interests of” the gulf nation and the Sunshine State, according to documents filed with the Justice Department on Thursday. — Earlier this week, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez traveled to Doha as part of a delegation with the mayors of Quincy, Ill., and Rochester Hills, Mich., with Suarez’s office telling a local news outlet that the trip was aimed at attracting “investments to Miami and to continue promoting Miami as a global destination for business and investment that will lead to smart growth, opportunity, and well-paying jobs for our residents.” — The six month contract is worth $35,000 a month, according to a copy filed with DOJ, and comes amid a hiring spree of sorts for Qatar. Last month alone the embassy inked two new contracts, including one with a former aide to President Joe Biden, and Qatar’s defense ministry inked one. The embassy already retains more than a dozen U.S. firms, including Ballard Partners, another top Florida shop. ROBY JOINS ALABAMA LOBBYING FIRM: Former Alabama Congresswoman Martha Roby is joining the Montgomery-based law and lobbying shop Bradley Arant Boult Cummings as a senior advisor in the firm’s governmental affairs and economic development practice groups. Roby retired from the House earlier this year after five terms in office after narrowly surviving a GOP primary due in part to Roby withdrawing her support from former President Donald Trump in the wake of the “Access Hollywood” tape. — The firm declined to say whether Roby will register to lobby — though ethics laws bar her from lobbying her former colleagues for a year anyways.
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CDC SAYS VACCINATED AMERICANS CAN TRAVEL: The CDC announced today that fully vaccinated Americans can safely resume domestic and international travel as long as they wear face masks in public, POLITICO’s Erin Banco reports, a win the travel industry has lobbied for since guidance on travel was left out of the agency’s initial guidelines for those who have been vaccinated. — CDC Director Rochelle Walensky offered the update with a caveat, however, urging Americans to avoid travel if possible given that the majority of the country still has not been vaccinated and that cases are once again rising. — The update is a “a major step in the right direction that is supported by the science and will take the brakes off the industry that has been hardest hit by the fallout of COVID by far,” said Roger Dow, the president and chief executive of the U.S. Travel Association, which was one of about two dozen travel groups that wrote to the White House last week to call for a federal roadmap for resuming travel safely. SEARCH FOR TOP ANTITRUST JOB BESET BY ETHICS CONCERNS: POLITICO’s Leah Nylen reports that Biden’s “search for the Justice Department’s top trust-busting role is being bogged down by ethics concerns, both about candidates who have represented Silicon Valley’s giants and those who have represented critics of the big tech companies.” — “Specifically, White House ethics officials are raising objections about DOJ antitrust candidates who have represented critics of big tech companies like Google, Facebook or Apple , people familiar with the deliberations told POLITICO. Those concerns prompted one prime candidate for the department’s top antitrust role to pull herself out of the running, the people said. And they would also pose a major obstacle to Biden hiring Jonathan Kanter, a progressive favorite who has represented many clients with complaints about Google.” WHAT THE GAO FOUND IN ITS ANNUAL AUDIT OF DISCLOSURE FILINGS: The Government Accountability Office has released its annual report on lobbyists’ compliance with the Lobbying Disclosure Act. Some highlights: Compliance with disclosure requirements remains high — “91 percent of lobbyists who filed new registrations also filed LD-2 reports as required for the quarter in which they first registered,” with 99 percent of lobbyists who filed able to “provide documentation for lobbying income and expenses.” — K Street didn’t get all passing marks, though. GAO found that nearly 3 in 10 reports “did not properly disclose one or more previously held covered positions as required.” Read the full report here. HONDURAS HIRED LOBBYISTS TO DERAIL DRUG TRAFFICKING CASE AGAINST PRESIDENT’S BROTHER: “Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández ’s government retained a powerhouse Washington law firm,” Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, “to lobby U.S. prosecutors to call off a ‘state-sponsored drug trafficking’ probe of his brother, who was sentenced this week for smuggling 185 tons of cocaine into the United States,” The Washington Post’s Spencer S. Hsu reports. — Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison plus 30 years and hit with a $158 million fine. “As noted by prosecutors in sentencing papers, Honduras in September 2019 retained a U.S. law firm to lobby the prosecution team. Prosecutors did not name the firm, but Arnold & Porter separately disclosed the relationship in Justice Department foreign lobbying disclosure forms.” — Within days of the registration, “lawyers with the firm told prosecutors they did not represent the defendant but were reaching out as ‘due diligence’ for an unspecified ‘transaction,’” and “warned of ‘collateral consequences’ from the case, including potential closures of U.S. military bases in Honduras and ‘unrelated immigration issues,’ prosecutors said.” AMMO FOR THE LEFT: “Just as the Biden administration is pushing to raise taxes on corporations, a new study finds that at least 55 of America’s largest paid no taxes last year on billions of dollars in profits,” The New York Times’ Patricia Cohen reports, helped by the 2017 GOP tax overhaul and a bevy of other deductions and exemptions. — “ Salesforce, Archer-Daniels-Midland and Consolidated Edison were among those named in the report, which was done by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning research group in Washington.” SPEAKING OF TAXES: Rep. Richard Neal , the House’s top tax writer, said Thursday “that he may have some changes to President Joe Biden’s plan to defray the cost of his infrastructure spending proposal,” POLITICO’s Brian Faler reports. “‘The Congress will offer some suggestions — we will accept some of what he is proposing,’” the Massachusetts Democrat said in a news conference, though he declined to get into the details. — “Neal also ticked off some of his own priorities for the plan, including reviving the ‘Build America Bonds’ program from the Obama administration. He said he wants to expand the New Markets Tax Credit, low-income housing tax breaks and a credit for rehabilitating historic buildings.” FEDS INVESTIGATING POTENTIAL MISUSE OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS BY GAETZ: “Federal investigators looking into Rep. Matt Gaetz 's relationships with young women have examined whether any federal campaign money was involved in paying for travel and expenses for the women,” CNN’s Evan Perez, David Shortell, Paula Reid and Pamela Brown report, citing a person briefed on the matter. Gaetz, who has denied the allegations against him, is also under investigation for potentially having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old in 2019 and paying for her travel, violating sex trafficking laws. HOW BIDEN IS PACIFYING THE LEFT’S COMPLAINTS ABOUT INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN: “Including a labor-rights overhaul in his massive infrastructure proposal is proving to be a key sweetener from President Biden to the activist left as he seeks their support and grass-roots lobbying for the package,” The Wall Street Journal’s Gabriel Rubin writes. — “The Democratic Socialists of America spares little love for Biden and actively opposed him during the Democratic primaries. However, the DSA has put its members to work on behalf of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act—a pro-union measure that strengthens worker bargaining rights and toughens enforcement of the National Labor Relations Act—which Biden has now tacked on to his infrastructure proposal. During the first day of a weeklong phone-banking event, DSA members made over 100,000 calls to voters in states whose senators are crucial to the bill’s passage.” — The PRO Act, which passed the House last month but has stalled in the Senate amid fervent opposition from Republicans and business groups, who also oppose the broadness and corporate tax hikes in Biden’s infrastructure plan, “is making a proposal with lukewarm left-wing support more palatable to some organizations.” | | | — The secure-identification company CLEAR has hired Ken Lisaius as vice president of public affairs and communications. He was previously the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s senior vice president of communications and also worked in President George W. Bush’s White House. — CRD Associates has hired Jeremy Scott as a senior vice president. He was previously a senior director of government affairs at Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville and will take several clients with him, including the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses, the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association, the International Myeloma Foundation, and Are You Dense, Inc. — American Clean Power has hired Rod O’Connor as chief commercialization and engagement officer and Jason Clark as chief strategy officer. O’Connor is president of the ROC Group and served as an executive producer for this year’s inauguration and a policy advisor for the recent transition, and Clark was most recently a partner and the vice president of strategy for Ballast Research. — John O’Brien will be president and CEO of the National Pharmaceutical Council. He previously was a senior advisor to the HHS secretary and deputy assistant secretary of planning and evaluation for health policy, and is an Obama CMS alum. — Pedro Montenegro is joining JDRF International as manager of government relations, where he will be registering to lobby. He was most recently an associate account executive of government relations at Kellen. — Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP has hired Susanne Sachsman Grooms as partner in Washington, D.C. and promoted Michael Ferrara to partner in New York. Grooms was previously chief counsel on the House Oversight Committee and was on the trial team for both Trump impeachments. | | | LaTurner Victory Fund (Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kan.), Kansas Victory PAC, NRCC) | | | Generation Blue Political Fund - Federal (PAC)
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Take Back NY-18 Republican Nominee Fund 2022 (PAC) | | New Lobbying Registrations | | Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld: Salesforce.Com, Inc
Alpine Group Partners, LLC.: Rainey Center Freedom Project
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP: Berkshire Hathaway Energy
Barker Leavitt, Pllc (Ska Mr. James C. Barker): Beach Cities Health District
Beacon Street Strategies, LLC: United Professional Horsemen's Association
Bgr Government Affairs: Do & Co New York Catering, Inc.
Bgr Government Affairs: Edward B. Macmahon, Jr., Plc
Bgr Government Affairs: White & Case LLP On Behalf Of Dana Holdings Limited
Brian Glackin: Trident Research
Broydrick & Associates: Real Estate Development Associates (REDA)
Broydrick & Associates: Supermax Healthcare, Inc.
Capitol Counsel, LLC: American Ambulance Association
Ferox Strategies: Iom
Foley & Lardner, LLP: Nexus Brands Group, LLC
Forbes-Tate: Ceo Climate Dialogue
Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures, LLC: Foresight Energy Resources, LLC
K&L Gates LLP: Caelux Corporation
K&L Gates LLP: Clark Street Associates On Behalf Of Echodyne Corp.
K&L Gates LLP: Clark Street Associates On Behalf Of Everactive Inc.
K&L Gates LLP: Clark Street Associates On Behalf Of Ionq, Inc.
K&L Gates LLP: Clark Street Associates On Behalf Of Kepler Computing, Inc.
K&L Gates LLP: Clark Street Associates On Behalf Of Rambus
K&L Gates LLP: Jobget, Inc.
K&L Gates LLP: Minority Cannabis Business Association D/B/A Mcba
Medecins Sans Frotieres D/B/A Doctors Without Borders: Medecins Sans Frotieres D/B/A Doctors Without Borders
Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, Inc.: Sellers Dorsey
Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, Inc.: Wedgewood Village Pharmacy, LLC
Mercury Public Affairs, LLC: Roz Trading LLC
Mr. Robert Rozen: National Equity Fund, Inc.
Northfork Strategies: Visionary Communications Dba Visionary Broadband
Olsson, Frank, Weeda, Terman & Matz, Pc: US Apple Association
Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.: Graduate Plastics, Inc. D/B/A Quantum Storage
Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.: L&L Candle Co.
Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.: Superatv, LLC
Sorini, Samet & Associates, LLC: Wolverine Worldwide
Stride Policy Solutions, LLC: Association Of Assistive Technology Act Programs
Targa Resources Partners Lp: Targa Resources Partners Lp
Van Heuvelen Strategies, LLC: Chart Industries, Inc.
Van Heuvelen Strategies, LLC: Svante, Inc. | | New Lobbying Terminations | | American Continental Group: Anheuser-Busch Companies LLC
American Continental Group: Project Management Institute, Inc.
Ats Communications, Inc.: Skydex Technologies
Ballard Partners: Public Utility District No.1 Of Douglas County
Bgr Government Affairs: Postmates Inc
C Yrrus: Hettinger Strategy Group On Behalf Of Service Now
C Yrrus: Hettinger Strategy Group On Behalf Of Service Now
Elevate Credit, Inc.: Elevate Credit, Inc.
Hettinger Strategy Group LLC: Service Now, Inc.
Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures, LLC: Eastman Chemical Company
Indigo Agriculture, Inc.: Indigo Agriculture, Inc.
Miller Strategies, LLC: National Fisheries Institute
Miller Strategies, LLC: Sachem Inc.
Miller Strategies, LLC: Ses Americom Inc.
Miller Strategies, LLC: Thomas S. Smith, Jr.
Miller Strategies, LLC: Vivebio Scientific, LLC
Mr. Robert Rozen: Local Initiative Support Corporation
S2C Pacific, LLC: Paper Recycling Coalition
The Ingram Group LLC: Nuclear Energy Institute (Nei)
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