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Presented by REAL SOLUTIONS®, a community safety program of the firearm industry.: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | Presented by REAL SOLUTIONS®, a community safety program of the firearm industry. | With Daniel Lippman TOP API INFRASTRUCTURE LOBBYIST DECAMPS FOR INVARIANT: Kenny Roberts, a Democratic political strategist and former director of federal relations for the American Petroleum Institute, is joining Invariant ’s government relations team. Roberts, who was the oil and gas lobby’s chief lobbyist on infrastructure, workforce and labor issues, will work on similar policies at Invariant, where he told PI he’s eager to broaden his focus beyond energy. FARA FRIDAY: Kenya’s government has hired a pair of former Clinton White House aides, including press secretary Joe Lockhart , to boost its sway in Washington, according to documents filed with the Justice Department this week. The contract with Rational 360 comes as the Biden administration has said it will review its predecessor’s negotiations on a free trade agreement to ensure a potential deal aligns with President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. Two rounds of negotiations took place with the Trump administration. — Lockart, along with Nick Fitzgerald and Patrick Dorton, a former Senate, DNC and National Economic Council spokesperson, will assist Kenya’s ambassador to the U.S. in making inroads with “government and non-government officials” and general PR, according to their filing. The yearlong contract is worth $600,000, according to a copy filed with DOJ. — Meanwhile Holland & Knight, which registered last week as a foreign agent of Ethiopia’s Peace Ministry, has since added a pair of crisis communications experts to its team on the account: Audrey Young, who leads the firm’s high-stakes communications practice, and Stewart Gordon. Happy Friday and welcome to PI. Send your best lobbying tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. | | | | A message from REAL SOLUTIONS®, a community safety program of the firearm industry: The firearm industry is creating safer communities through partnerships with law enforcement, elected officials, and community leaders. Our REAL SOLUTIONS® programs have distributed more than 40 million free gun locks to promote secure storage, strengthened the FBI background check system to keep guns out of the wrong hands, and provided thousands of suicide prevention toolkits in partnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. These are true gun safety programs. Make a difference at NSSFRealSolutions.org. | | | FEC FILING DAY: “Most House Republicans who objected to the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory saw their small-dollar fundraising rise in the first three months of this year compared to the same quarter in 2019, helping to offset a decrease in PAC donations for most of those members,” according to POLITICO’s Zach Montellaro, Theodoric Meyer and Allan James Vestal. — “While 56 of the 95 House Republican objectors whose filings POLITICO analyzed saw their fundraising decline compared with the first quarter of 2019, 42 saw it rise. And a majority of them — 60 — saw their small-dollar fundraising go up compared with the first quarter of 2019. … Eighty-three House Republicans saw a decrease in PAC fundraising" during the first quarter of 2021, and "just eight saw an increase.” — There are signs, too, that the corporate cash freeze has begun to thaw: “ Toyota told E&E News that it was ‘assessing our future PAC criteria’ shortly after the riots at the Capitol. But its corporate PAC has given to many members who voted against the results, according to data compiled by the newsletter Popular Information. JetBlue, which said it was pausing donations, had also restarted donations to some Republican objectors,” as has the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which last month softened its rhetoric on donating to election objectors. MANUFACTURERS SPENDING TO FIGHT CORPORATE TAX HIKE: The National Association of Manufacturers is taking to the airwaves in its fight against Biden’s bid to raise corporate taxes to fund his infrastructure proposal. The trade group is launching a six-figure ad buy featuring print, radio and digital ads that highlight its recent study that found hiking taxes on corporations could result in the loss of one million jobs. — “Now is not the time to take a step back; it’s time to build the next, post-pandemic world, which can only be done with a competitive tax code,” NAM CEO Jay Timmons said in a statement. The ads will run in D.C. and key states. CRUISE EXECS HUDDLED WITH ADMINISTRATION OVER NO-SAIL ORDER: CEOs from the country’s largest cruise operators — Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line — met virtually on Monday with officials from the White House’s coronavirus response team and the CDC to press the administration to “replace the government’s phased-in approach to sailings from U.S. ports and to create a clear roadmap that allows sailings to resume this summer,” CNBC’s Seema Mody reports. — The meeting came as the industry and its allies have stepped up pressure on the Biden administration to lay out a framework to resume cruises from U.S. ports as more of the country reopens, and after more than a year of lying dormant following a series of coronavirus outbreaks on cruise ships early in the pandemic. — In a sign that the industry is not yet out of the woods, Norwegian hired new lobbying help last month, disclosure filings revealed this week. The cruise line reupped its request to the CDC Thursday afternoon to let it resume sailing out of U.S. ports by July 4. — The cruise line retained McCarter & English’s Guillermo Artiles, who worked on the Biden campaign and for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and Stephanie Lezcano, a former legislative liaison for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and a Murphy alum. Norwegian registered its only other lobbyists, a team from Tarplin, Downs & Young, last summer. | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TO JOIN AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION: Power is changing, in Washington and across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that all politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. Our twice-weekly newsletter "The Recast” breaks down how race and identity are shaping politics and policy in America and we are recasting how we report on it. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear from important new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | ANNALS OF SCAM PACS: The FBI on Thursday issued a warning to the public that federal investigators are “seeing an increase in reports of potentially fraudulent PACs” and urged would-be donors to be on the lookout for such schemes. The bureau advised Americans to check out the FEC’s website before making donations when approached by a new group, or look through committees’ spending reports and look at candidates’ official websites to determine where to give. — The warning came days after the Justice Department charged the operator of a pro-Trump scam PAC with wire fraud, “alleging he bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors with false promises that the money would help support the former president's re-election efforts,” Axios reported. MANCHIN, SINEMA, FITZPATRICK NAB SPEAKING SLOTS AT RESTAURANTS’ CONFERENCE: Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) are set to address the National Restaurant Association’s annual public affairs conference next week, according to a schedule posted by the trade group. The conference on Tuesday will also feature a keynote address from former Obama chief of staff and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. — Manchin and Sinema are of course both considered swing votes in the deadlocked chamber. And they have resisted pressure from the left to abolish the legislative filibuster standing in the way of several priorities the restaurant lobby would like to stay blocked, like a minimum wage hike to $15 that both senators voted against last month. The two will appear separately with the trade group’s top lobbyist, Sean Kennedy, in conversations on “finding bipartisan solutions,” according to the agenda. UBER SHAREHOLDER ASKS FOR MORE LOBBYING TRANSPARENCY: “The International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund, an investor in Uber, sent a letter to other Uber shareholders Thursday urging them to vote for a proposal that would force the company to disclose more details each year about its lobbying efforts,” Insider’s Tyler Sonnemaker reports. — The proposal “would require Uber to publish an annual report disclosing its lobbying policies, how much it spent on direct, indirect, and grassroots lobbying, and which groups the money went to,” and will be voted on next month. It comes after the rideshare company poured tens of millions of dollars into last year’s Prop 22 campaign in California, including “‘grassroots’ lobbying through groups that helped the company broadcast its message to voters without telling them who the messenger was.” | | | — Jon Reinish has joined Mercury Public Affairs’ New York office as a managing director. He was most recently managing director at SKDK and is an alum of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-N.Y.) office. — Jim Esquea will be vice president of public affairs at ScottsMiracle-Gro. He was most recently senior director of federal affairs for Juul Labs. — Accion Opportunity Fund has hired Chris Pilkerton as chief legal and regulatory strategy officer. He was most recently senior policy adviser to President Donald Trump for the Opportunity Now Initiative, a government program aimed at supporting economic development for underserved communities and previously served as acting administrator of the Small Business Administration. | | | | A message from REAL SOLUTIONS®, a community safety program of the firearm industry:   | | | | | | None. | | | SECOND FRONT SYSTEMS INC PAC (PAC) | | New Lobbying Registrations | | Avenue Solutions: Psiphon, Inc.
Ballard Spahr LLP: City Of Providence
Boundary Stone Partners: Swiftmile
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Self Check Corp.
Delphi World Group: Capitol Integration
Diroma Eck & Co. LLP: National Infrastructure Campaign, Inc.
Envision Healthcare: Envision Healthcare
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (Formerly Known As Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP): Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc.
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (Formerly Known As Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP): Global Antibiotic Research And Development Partnership (Gardp)
Ghazal & Associates, LLC: Advanced Technology Systems Company
Greystone Global Strategies LLC: Amsterdam Group Public Relations (For Techmet Limited)
Hogan Lovells US LLP: Lookingglass Cyber Solutions, Inc.
Hogan Lovells US LLP: Momentus, Inc.
Ipolicy Solutions: Clear Labs
Klein/Johnson Group: Cisco Systems
Mapetsi Policy Group: The Language Conservancy
Mccaulley&Company: Ivory Educational Consulting Group
Mcdermott+Consulting LLC: Lifecare 2.0, LLC
Mcdermott Will & Emery LLP: American Academy Of Sleep Medicine
Michael Best Strategies LLC: Echo Scientific
Monument Advocacy: Monolith Materials
Ms. Elizabeth Lavach: Rma Armament
Ms. Elizabeth Lavach: Roam Robotics, Inc.
Ms. Tami Wahl: Tcm Enterprises LLC
Mz Advising, LLC: American Wood Council
Mz Advising, LLC: Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association
Neale Creek, LLC: Fgh Holdings, LLC On Behalf Of Pivotal Ventures LLC
Paul Marcone & Associates, LLC: Ohel Children'S Home And Family Services
Primacy Strategy Group: Nexus Family Healing
Primacy Strategy Group: The Treeline Conservancy
Republic Consulting, LLC: M3 Consulting Services, Inc.
Republic Consulting, LLC: Raytheon Black Bird Technologies
Resolution Public Affairs, LLC: Fwd.US
R&R Partners, Inc.: Southwest Regional Council Of Carpenters
Subject Matter (Fka Elmendorf Ryan): American Innovation: The Ai Project
Subject Matter (Fka Elmendorf Ryan): Christie's, Inc.
Subject Matter (Fka Elmendorf Ryan): Clean Energy Fuels
Subject Matter (Fka Elmendorf Ryan): Fortinet, Inc.
Subject Matter (Fka Elmendorf Ryan): Grail
Subject Matter (Fka Elmendorf Ryan): Harbinger Strategies (On Behalf Of Cma Cgm Group)
Subject Matter (Fka Elmendorf Ryan): Professional Fighters League
Subject Matter (Fka Elmendorf Ryan): Results For America
Thorn Run Partners: Eli Lilly And Company
Thorn Run Partners: Steris Corporation
Townsend Public Affairs: The Bay Club Company
Waxman Strategies: Sierra Club
William Watson Group LLC: O'Keefe's, Inc. | | | | YOUR GUIDE TO THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: As the Biden administration closes in on three months in office, what are the big takeaways? Will polls that show support for infrastructure initiatives and other agenda items translate into Republican votes or are they a mirage? What's the plan to deal with Sen. Joe Manchin? Add Transition Playbook to your daily reads for details you won't find anywhere else that reveal what's really happening inside the West Wing and across the executive branch. Track the people, policies and power centers of the Biden administration. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | New Lobbying Terminations | | Aimbridge Hospitality, LLC: Aimbridge Hospitality, LLC
American Continental Group: Cargill, Inc.
American Continental Group: Center For Policing Equity
American Continental Group: Peraton Corporation
Audentes Therapeutics: Audentes Therapeutics
Bgr Government Affairs: Ancestry
Bgr Government Affairs: Quadrant Holdings
Christian Care Ministry: Christian Care Ministry
Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Bank Policy Institute
Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Crossroads Strategies LLC Obo Lake Tindall LLP Obo Mississippi Levee Board
Covington & Burling LLP: Aimbridge Hospitality, LLC
Crossroads Strategies, LLC: Infor (US), Inc.
Dentons US LLP: Drl Enterprises, Inc.
Dentons US LLP: Helicopter Association International
Dentons US LLP: King Ranch, Inc.
Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP: Camp Echo Lake
Mcguirewoods Consulting (A Subsidiary Of Mcguirewoods LLP): Equifax, Inc.
Orion Advocates: Lignetics Inc.
Orion Advocates: Pfi
Tauzin Strategic Networks: Tauzin Consultants (On Behalf Of T-Mobile USa, Inc.)
The Livingston Group, LLC: Avara Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.
Ward And Smith, P.A.: Med-El Corporation
Amputee Coalition: Amputee Coalition
Apco Worldwide LLC: The Production And Commercial Company Velta LLC
Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz /The Daschle Group: Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (Fis)
Bridge Public Affairs, LLC: Grace Healthcare
Bridge Public Affairs, LLC: Rennova Health, Inc.
Carpi & Clay, Inc.: Van Scoyoc Associates On Behalf Of The City Of Newport Beach, Ca
Cogent Strategies LLC: Enterprise Holdings
Consultores Internacionales Ansley: Consultores Internacionales Ansley
Consultores Internacionales Ansley: Corey S.A De C.V.
Crossroads Strategies, LLC: New Mexico Council Of Outfitters And Guides
Crossroads Strategies, LLC: Spokane Tribe Of Indians
Dentons US LLP: International Contrast Ultrasound Society
Ernst & Young LLP (Washington Council Ernst & Young): Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (Formerly Known As Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP): Global Down Syndrome Foundation
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (Formerly Known As Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP): Maplebear, Inc. D/B/A Instacart
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (Formerly Known As Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP): Ur-Energy USa Inc
Fti Government Affairs: 3M Company
Fti Government Affairs: Axa Sa
Fti Government Affairs: Neuberger Berman Group, LLC
Fti Government Affairs: Ppc USa, Inc.
Gotham Government Relations: Halodine LLC
Gotham Government Relations: Institute For Gulf Affairs
Gotham Government Relations: National Association Of Bail Agents
Jack C. Peterson: Harris County Texas
K&L Gates LLP: Clark Street Associates On Behalf Of Western Digital
Mhc Health Strategies: Advault, Inc.
Michael Torrey Associates, LLC: New York Keren
Miller-Wenhold Capitol Strategies: Carepayment Technologies, Inc.
Miller-Wenhold Capitol Strategies: International Precious Metals Institute
Miller-Wenhold Capitol Strategies: Nano Filter, Inc.
Odney, Inc.: Meridian Energy Group, Inc.
Odney, Inc.: Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund
Olsson, Frank, Weeda, Terman & Matz, Pc: Adheris
Olsson, Frank, Weeda, Terman & Matz, Pc: Association Of Food Industries
Olsson, Frank, Weeda, Terman & Matz, Pc: Beef Products Inc - Empirical Foods
Olsson, Frank, Weeda, Terman & Matz, Pc: Healthcare Distribution Alliance - Healthcare Distribution Management Assoc
Olsson, Frank, Weeda, Terman & Matz, Pc: Red Bull Na
Olsson, Frank, Weeda, Terman & Matz, Pc: San Tomo Group
Republic Consulting, LLC: National Association Of Software And Services Companies (Nasscom)
Robertson, Monagle, & Eastaugh Pc (Formerly Known At Hoffman, Silver, Gilman And: Inter Island Ferry Authority
Ryan Costello Strategies: Mount Airy #1, LLC
Sextons Creek: Argentum
Sextons Creek: Microsoft Corporation
Sextons Creek: National Biodiesel Board
Steptoe & Johnson LLP: The Chloropicrin Manufacturers' Task Force
The Livingston Group, L.L.C.: Avara Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.
The Russell Group, Inc.: Blueberry Coalition For Progress & Health
Thomas Kahn: Cormac Group On Behalf Of International Center For Democracy
| | | | A message from REAL SOLUTIONS®, a community safety program of the firearm industry: Partnerships with over 15,000 law enforcement agencies. Distribution of more than 40 million free firearm safety kits. A 266% increase in disqualifying records submitted to the FBI background check system. These are just a few of the success metrics behind the firearm industry’s REAL SOLUTIONS® programs. For decades, the firearm industry has been creating safer communities through partnerships with law enforcement, elected officials, and community leaders. We’re proud to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and members of Congress, regardless of political stripe to create safer communities. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing: to keep guns out of the wrong hands. The proven-effective REAL SOLUTIONS® programs promote true gun safety that everyone should be able to rally behind and support. Let’s work together at NSSFRealSolutions.org. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
