WARREN ACCUSES FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIALS OF VIOLATING COOLING OFF RULES: “Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is raising alarms over efforts by a top defense trade group advocating for more defense spending, saying two members may have violated lobbying ethics rules over the role they played in conveying the group’s message,” our Lee Hudson reports. — “At issue is a white paper released by the National Defense Industrial Association on Sept. 13 that called for increasing the Defense Department’s budget by $42 billion. The white paper also made the case for modifying contract prices in response to inflation, and amending future contracts to include automatic inflation adjustments. David Norquist, NDIA president and CEO, and John Whitley, a former assistant secretary of the Army, co-authored the white paper.” — “ In a letter Warren sent to NDIA on Wednesday and obtained by POLITICO, the senator noted that Norquist and Whitley — both former Pentagon officials in the Trump administration — are subject to a two-year ban on influencing the executive branch, sometimes referred to as a ‘cooling-off period.’” — “The ban prohibits influencing officials ‘on behalf of another on matters that were pending under your official responsibility during your last year of Federal service,’ which in Norquist’s and Whitley’s case was the defense budget. … ‘It is difficult to believe that you did not know this white paper would be used to support lobbying contacts,’ she wrote.” — The trade group “defended their roles in drafting the white paper, which ‘was developed by a bi-partisan team of experienced former Defense officials to inform Congress of the potentially destructive impact inflation is having on our national security,’ NDIA spokesperson Scott Rekdal said. … ‘Both Mr. Norquist and Mr. Whitley are in full compliance with the letter and intent of their post-government restrictions,’ Rekdal said in the statement.” FREE MARKET GROUPS ASK REPUBLICANS TO REBUFF CARD FEES AMENDMENT: Leaders from nearly three dozen right-leaning and free-market groups are calling on Republican lawmakers to reject the proposed NDAA amendment from Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) targeting the so-called swipe fees credit card networks like Visa and Mastercard charge merchants to run transactions. — “It is abundantly clear that special interest groups are using the federal government to alter the credit card market to benefit themselves and not consumers,” the groups argued in a letter to members of Congress today. — The signatories, which include Americans for Tax Reform, FreedomWorks, R Street Institute, the National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Prosperity, Heritage Action, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council and the Competitive Enterprise Institute , contended that the provision directing the Federal Reserve to issue rules requiring large card-issuing banks or credit unions to offer at least one alternate network that isn’t affiliated with Visa or Mastercard amounted to a “backdoor price control.” — They echoed the objections raised by banks, credit unions and the card networks themselves , who have said such a provision poses threats not only to the credit card rewards ecosystem, but to fraud protection and cybersecurity efforts. “This is textbook rent seeking behavior, anathema to free market principles, and should be staunchly opposed by Republican lawmakers,” the coalition wrote. BROCK-LED MEDIA OUTLET BEHIND NETWORK OF LIBERAL ‘LOCAL NEWS’ COVERAGE: The American Independent, a D.C.-based progressive news outlet launched and run by Democratic operatives, are “ behind a sprawling network of ostensible local media outlets churning out Democrat-aligned news content in midterm battleground states,” Axios’ Lachlan Markay and Thomas Wheatley report — “an increasingly common tactic among political outfits looking to give their team a steady stream of positive content they can then use to boost their own electoral communications.” — “A network of at least 51 locally branded news sites has popped up since last year under names like the Milwaukee Metro Times, the Mecklenburg Herald and the Tri-City Record,” and are focused on key midterm battlegrounds. “‘About Us’ pages for each of the sites say they're run by a company called Local Report Inc., which was formed in Florida last year.” — But “their mastheads indicate involvement by another entity. … Six American Independent writers have each contributed to most or all of the sites in the network, according to an Axios review of bylines on the sites. While all of the sites aggregate content from other sources, all six of those authors regularly write stories directly for the Local Report network, with numerous articles appearing exclusively on those sites” and are then boosted by Democratic groups. — The outlet was launched by Democratic strategist and donor David Brock. “TAI's president, Matt Fuehrmeyer, is a former senior aide at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and to Harry Reid, the late former Senate Democratic leader. The for-profit entity is funded in part by the nonprofit arm of American Bridge, an opposition research-focused Democratic super PAC, according to its website.” (100) MILLION DOLLAR BABY: “Citadel’s billionaire CEO, Ken Griffin, is one of Wall Street’s biggest political donors in the 2022 midterms, giving more than $100 million toward state and federal candidates across the country since April 2021,” CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports. — “The $50 million Griffin has donated to Republicans running in federal races alone make him the party’s single biggest individual donor from the finance industry and the third-biggest political donor to federal candidates in this election cycle, according to data tracked by campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets,” behind only Democratic megadonor George Soros and conservative donor Richard Uihlein. — “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., and other GOP leaders have privately courted Griffin as one of their most important and lucrative donors this cycle, as Republicans try to take back both the U.S. House and Senate, according to people familiar with the conversations.” — Those efforts appear to be paying off: “Griffin donated $10 million to the PAC in two evenly split checks sent in December and March, Federal Election Commission filings show. Griffin cut another check to the PAC in the third quarter, according to a person close to the billionaire, but they wouldn’t say how much and the PAC doesn’t need to disclose its most recent fundraising records to the FEC until Oct. 15. Griffin also recently donated to the Congressional Leadership Fund , a super PAC backing House Republican candidates, that person said, declining to say how much.”
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