HERRERA BEUTLER AIDE HEADS DOWNTOWN: Jordan Evich is joining Monument Advocacy as a principal and head of the appropriations practice. Evich is a longtime aide to outgoing Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), who was defeated in a primary earlier this year following her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. — Evich most recently served as deputy chief of staff to Herrera Beutler in her personal office and as a staffer for her work on the House Appropriations Committee. “Jordan has been an indispensable part of my team for the past decade,” the congresswoman said in a statement provided by the firm that praised Evich’s “deep understanding of the appropriations process (and the players therein) and his strategic approach to problem solving.” — Evich further bolsters Monument’s ties to Washington State, where the firm has a five-person office and represents a number of Pacific Northwest-based clients like Starbucks, Amazon, Boeing, Alaska Airlines and Microsoft. SPILLING TEA: “CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam repeatedly met with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his team in connection with the firm’s application to let investors use borrowed money to trade crypto on the company’s derivatives platform around the clock, the agency's chief told lawmakers on Thursday,” per POLITICO’s Sam Sutton. — “FTX was ‘dogged in their pursuit’ of getting its application approved, Behnam said at a Senate Agriculture hearing” about the collapse of the crypto exchange earlier this month. “‘They were in the building quite a bit.’ Behnam added that there were also multiple phone calls, messages and a meeting at an industry conference in Miami.” — The CFTC chief also told lawmakers that the agency, which FTX supported gaining more regulatory authority over the industry, had received no reports of fraud or misconduct by whistleblowers regarding the exchange, Sam reports. — This morning’s hearing also put the committee’s top lawmakers, Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.), on defense regarding their crypto regulation bill . — “I've said this before, and I'll say it again, the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act does not — does not — take authority away from other financial regulators,” Stabenow said, insisting that the actions that resulted in FTX declaring bankruptcy are “the very conduct legislation is designed to prevent.” — Others in the industry sought to head off that argument ahead of the hearing. “Current legislative proposals like the DCCPA would not prevent FTX International’s failure” given that the exchange is headquartered in the Bahamas, the Blockchain Association argued in a memo to lawmakers Wednesday. “There is no US law or regulation that can prevent the failure of an offshore entity.” — The memo called FTX’s failure “one of traditional finance, not of blockchain technology” and urged a “thorough investigation” to inform future “tailored” legislation “focused on further mitigating risks posed by custodial intermediaries, such as centralized stablecoin regulation.” LAYOFFS HIT EDELMAN: Global PR giant Edelman has laid off around 130 people, according to an email CEO Richard Edelman sent to staffers obtained by Daniel. On Wednesday, the firm told Daniel that it is pausing new hiring, limiting employee travel and firm events and doing a “strategic review” of its more than 6,000-person workforce because of uncertainty in the economy. — “While this is necessary amid current headwinds, this decision was difficult and one we don’t take lightly,” Edelman said in the Wednesday email. “Employees impacted by this reduction have been contacted and will be provided with information and resources to support their transition.” Despite the economic worries, he noted that the company is still forecasting 8% growth for the fiscal year. ICYMI — ‘TIS THE SEASON FOR SELF-REFLECTION: Washington’s top drug lobby has commissioned a postmortem report examining its advocacy efforts leading up to the industry’s most significant legislative blows in some time, our Megan Wilson reports. Bob Wood of BGR Group will spearhead the report on PhRMA’s failure to block drug pricing reforms included in the Democrats’ reconciliation package earlier this year despite tens of millions of dollars on the effort. — “‘Like most organizations, it’s our standard operating procedure to do an after-action review following a large-scale, organization-wide advocacy effort,’ said Brian Newell, a PhRMA spokesperson, in an emailed statement to POLITICO.” — “BGR has been reaching out to PhRMA’s member companies to gauge the sentiment of the association’s advocacy and strategy throughout the drug pricing debate and its relationship with Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, one lobbyist for a member company told POLITICO.” — “‘They just took a beating, and so I think they're stepping back to reassess, “What could we have done better? What did we get right?” That's just smart governance, in my opinion,’ the person said.” The organization’s survey asks whether PhRMA should have struck a deal on drug pricing with the Trump administration or else backed a bipartisan effort on the Hill, in addition to what else PhRMA could have done differently overall, the lobbyist said. — “Two of the pharmaceutical industry lobbyists familiar with the report also said that it’s natural for these types of reviews to take place after a policy battle, particularly to show accountability and make member companies feel heard. … ‘There’s a recognition that something in the industry needs to change — whether that’s a person or that’s a mission, that’s probably what’s being questioned,’" one of those lobbyists said.
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