FIREARM BRACE MAKER HIRES BROWNSTEIN: A company that manufactures firearm braces has retained a former chief of staff to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and a former Justice Department official to lobby on a Biden administration proposal regulating certain guns equipped with such stabilizing braces. — NST Global, which does business as SB Tactical, retained Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s Brian McGuire and Will Moschella to lobby on the proposed rule last month, according to newly filed disclosures. — Attorney General Merrick Garland announced plans for a new rulemaking on the issue last year, arguing that some versions of stabilizing braces, which were initially designed to be worn on the arm to allow individuals with disabilities more easily fire a weapon, instead allow users to fire from the shoulder. The initiative came shortly after a mass shooting in a Colorado grocery store in which the suspect allegedly used a stabilizing brace, which the administration linked to its push. — DOJ argues that usage of stabilizing braces transforms a firearm into what might be classified legally as a “short-barreled rifle” subject to heightened regulations under the National Firearms Act. The Trump administration introduced a similar proposal in 2020, but the outcry from gun rights advocates and the industry pressured officials into scrapping the plan. — The proposal again has drawn fierce opposition, garnering more than 200,000 responses during the public comment period last year. Nearly every Republican senator weighed in against the plan as well, blasting the plan in a letter to Garland last summer that noted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had greenlit stabilizing braces multiple times. — The lawmakers argued that the proposed rule was too broad. It “would turn millions of law-abiding Americans into criminals overnight, and would constitute the largest executive branch-imposed gun registration and confiscation scheme in American history,” they added. — NST Global also retains Adnan Jalil of Alpha Strategies as well as Mark Barnes & Associates and Wiley Rein, according to disclosure filings, though Alpha Strategies has received all of the $180,000 the company spent on lobbying this year — three times what NST Global spent on lobbying in 2021. MANCHIN DIGS IN ON FOREIGN EV TAX BREAK LOBBYING: “Senator Joe Manchin is pressing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to stand firm on North American-based manufacturing requirements for lucrative electric-vehicle tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, setting up a battle between the West Virginia Democrat and Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co.,” Bloomberg’s Gabrielle Coppola and Ari Natter report. — “Hyundai and the Korean government have pushed for a lenient interpretation of the rules and more time to be compliant so their imported EVs can qualify for credits. ‘Unfortunately, I have heard that some automakers and foreign governments are asking your agency for a broad interpretation of 45W that would allow rental cars, leased vehicles, and rideshare vehicles’ to be eligible for the $7,500 commercial vehicle tax credit, Manchin wrote in letter to Yellen made public Tuesday.” — “‘If these vehicles are deemed eligible, I can guarantee that companies will focus their attention away from trying to invest in North America.’ Manchin, who provided Democrats a pivotal vote on the legislation, fought to include new limits on who could claim the tax credits, which he previously dismissed as ‘ludicrous.’” — “Hyundai and the Korean government have put up an aggressive lobbying campaign to persuade the Biden administration to tweak the bill or loosen enforcement. South Korean trade ministers and members of its assembly have reached out to their US counterparts in Washington to lobby for more time before the restrictions kick in, either through legislation or regulation. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and other officials have brought up the issue in meetings with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as well.” HARD TIMES: “Democracy for America, a liberal group founded by former presidential candidate Howard Dean, is planning to shut down unless a last-minute savior comes through,” three people familiar with the plans tell Holly Otterbein and Daniel. — “The political action committee notified remaining employees that their last day will be Thursday, the people said. A number of the 13 to 15 employees on the organization’s payroll in early November had already been laid off in recent weeks.” After Holly and Daniel’s story posted, the group’s special adviser Charles Chamberlain “confirmed the decision to close the PAC in a statement to POLITICO. He said the nonprofit 501(c)(4) would remain in operation.” — “The organization started in its current form after Dean’s unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign, and throughout its history it helped elect more than 1,000 progressive candidates and raised $70 million dollars since it started, staff said. In recent years, it focused on structural democracy reform, ranked choice voting, student debt relief and Medicare for All.”
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