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Presented by Stop the Deficit Squawks: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | Presented by Stop the Deficit Squawks | With Megan R. Wilson and Daniel Lippman NEW BUSINESS: Fresh off a year in which it spent more money on lobbying than ever before, Amazon is showing no signs of slowing down. The e-commerce giant has retained Stewart Jeffries of Jeffries Strategies to lobby on competition, data privacy, intellectual property and intermediary liability, according to newly filed disclosures. — Jeffries most recently spent more than a decade on Google’s in-house lobbying team, and before that served as the majority antitrust counsel for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. And he’s racked up quite the client list since launching his own firm last year. He’s continued to lobby for his old employer through the new firm, and also represents Meta — making Jeffries’ shop only the third firm in town currently representing three of the so-called big four tech companies. (Capitol Tax Partners and Salt Point Strategies both represent Apple, Amazon and Meta.) — Jeffries Strategies was the third new outside lobbying firm Amazon added last year, as the company worked to quash antitrust legislation, fielded FTC probes and faced complaints over its response to unionization efforts. Jay Carney, the former White House press secretary who served as Amazon’s head of policy and PR for seven years, departed last summer for Airbnb. Now, the company is navigating a downturn in the tech sector that will see the elimination of up to 18,000 jobs. — Still, Amazon spent almost $20 million on lobbying in 2022 — up from $19.3 million in 2021, and its most ever. Amazon now has 19 outside lobbying firms on retainer, including antitrust lobbyist Seth Bloom, Jeff Ricchetti, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, the Duberstein Group, Ballard Partners and Monument Advocacy. — Another one of Washington’s top lobbying spenders has added new outside firms, too. CTIA-The Wireless Association this week retained Shumaker Advisors to lobby on telecom issues for the cellular carriers’ trade group. The team includes Ryan Walker, who previously served as chief of staff to Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) — the new chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on communications and technology. — The trade group brought on two other outside firms, according to recent filings, including the former legislative director to new Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz (R-Texas). CTIA now retains 19 outside firms. Happy Friday and welcome to PI. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.
| | | | A message from Stop the Deficit Squawks: For too long, groups like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Americans for Prosperity, American Enterprise Institute, and Heritage Foundation have been given a free pass to squawk about the deficit and debt. Stop Deficit Squawks is committed to revealing their true agenda and exposing them for what they are: corporate-backed special interest groups hell-bent on blocking popular, overdue, and economically-beneficial investments in our communities. Sign up for our newsletter here. | | | FARA FRIDAY: A trio of Republican congressmen are working to turn the screws on Al Jazeera, urging House leadership to revoke congressional press credentials for the more than 100 journalists working for the news outlet until it registers as a foreign agent of Qatar. The media conglomerate receives funding from the Qatari government, though the company insists that it maintains editorial independence. — “Credentialed members of the House and Senate galleries enjoy unparalleled access to the U.S. Capitol, as well as to Senators, Members of Congress, and staffers,” Reps. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) and Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) wrote to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the top lawmakers on the House Administration Committee. — The congressmen pointed to media reports they said detail Qatar’s “alarming penchant for spying on journalists, its supposed ‘enemies’ in the soccer world, and U.S. political leaders,” and while they defended journalists’ level of access to figures in power in the Capitol, “it is also the kind of access coveted by foreign powers seeking sensitive information from inside Congress,” they argued. — Qatar’s influence over Al Jazeera has been hotly debated for years now. Lobbyists for Doha’s regional rivals the United Arab Emirates have previously pushed the argument that the network’s journalists should register under FARA, and in 2020 the Justice Department ordered its digital news platform AJ+ to do just that. — Al Jazeera has resisted those demands, a stance the lawmakers said factored into their drastic call for members of Congress to intervene in the press credentialing process — normally handled by journalists. “We have no reason to doubt that most of Al Jazeera’s credentialed journalists in the Congressional galleries are legitimate reporters,” they wrote, “but that is not the issue.” — “If Al Jazeera won’t even do the minimum to respect our FARA laws, we would be foolish to believe that the State of Qatar wouldn’t use its prized possession to hide its intelligence operatives in plain sight in the U.S. Capitol,” they said.
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA’S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | TEVA DITCHES PHRMA: “Generics manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals has left the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry’s most powerful lobbying group,” POLITICO’s Megan Wilson reports. — “The move comes as the pharmaceutical industry shifts its financial outlook and regroups overall. It follows a rare defeat in a yearslong battle against Democrats’ drug pricing measures that included allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Teva is the second company to leave PhRMA in recent months,” after AbbVie decided last year that it would not renew its membership with the organization. — “In 2022, Teva spent $3.7 million on lobbying, including paying three outside lobbying firms to advocate on its behalf: Capitol Hill Consulting Group, the Smith-Free Group and Polsinelli. ‘We annually review effectiveness and value of engagements, consultants and memberships to ensure our investments are properly seated,’ Kelley Dougherty, a Teva spokesperson, said in a statement. She declined to comment on the reasons behind the departure or whether the company had also cut ties with any of its lobbying firms.” RGA TOOK FTX CASH: “Just days before the cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy, the company’s co-CEO Ryan Salame wrote a $500,000 check to the Republican Governors Association, the main campaign arm tasked with electing GOP executives across the country,” per POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs. — “The donation was not a radical move on Salame’s part. He was, at the time, an emerging prolific GOP donor who gave more than $23 million to federal candidates and PACs in 2021 and 2022, according to FEC records. But with the fall of FTX and the arrest of Salame’s co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, a new layer of scrutiny has been placed upon the campaign contributions that emanated from the leaders of the failed crypto empire.” — “A number of Democratic candidates have announced their intentions to return donations from Bankman-Fried. The RGA, however, appears to have kept Salame’s funds. A spokesperson for the group declined to comment on that specific donation. Unlike Bankman-Fried, Salame was not indicted. The $500,000 donation from Salame was part of a $28.6 million haul that the association brought in over the last three months of 2022, according to filings with the IRS.” KNOWING JEFF MILLER: The New York Times’ Ken Vogel has the latest profile of Miller Strategies founder and McCarthy confidant Jeff Miller. “When Mr. McCarthy won, so did Mr. Miller, who in addition to his wide-ranging volunteer roles for his friend is one of Washington’s most prominent Republican lobbyists, representing a spectrum of blue-chip corporate clients with issues at stake in Washington,” Vogel writes. — “Rarely has a lobbyist enjoyed the access to a House speaker that Mr. Miller has with Mr. McCarthy, a California Republican. As Mr. McCarthy has gained power, Mr. Miller’s prominent place in his orbit has drawn increased scrutiny from watchdog groups that track political influence as well as from conservatives who see him as an unaccountable power behind the throne whose presence is starkly at odds with their increasingly populist, anti-corporate message.” — Several anecdotes highlight that tension: “After Mr. McCarthy became speaker, Representative Vern Buchanan, Republican of Florida, confronted Mr. McCarthy on the House floor. He was furious, according to an ally of Mr. Buchanan, because he felt that Mr. Miller and Mr. McCarthy had quietly thrown their weight behind the successful rival bid for the chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means Committee by Representative Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican with whom Mr. Miller is friendly.” — “An associate of Mr. Miller’s said he did not play any role in the battle over the Ways and Means chairmanship. But the perception among Republicans that he is already shaping the operations of Mr. McCarthy’s House majority is a telling indication of how Mr. Miller’s place at the intersection of power, money, influence and access has made him one of the most important behind-the-scenes figures in Washington.” — Then there was the multiday celebration for McCarthy that Miller helped organize, including a gala with donors, executives, lawmakers and GOP insiders at which Miller introduced the new speaker; a fundraising breakfast the next morning held at the Washington outpost of tobacco giant Altria, a Miller Strategies client and political donor; and Miller’s needling of Republican supporters of last year’s tech antitrust push, which earned him the ire of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and conservative antitrust hawks.
| | | | A message from Stop the Deficit Squawks:   | | | | | | SPOTTED at a reception last night for the Asian American Pacific Islander Lobbyists Association hosted by Mindset on its rooftop, per a tipster: Lauren Toy of Rep. Susie Lee’s (D-Nev.) office, Moh Sharma of Jeffries’ office, Lila Nieves Lee of the Senate Banking Committee, Jae Jang of Rep. French Hill’s (R-Ark.) office, Andrew Noh of Rep. Marilyn Strickland’s (D-Wash.) office, Alex Huang of Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman’s (D-N.J.) office, Nisha Ramachandran of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Kelvin Lum of Rep. Ami Bera’s (D-Calif.) office, Nolan Ahern of the House Ways and Means Committee, Catalina Tam of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office; Lauri Ng, Langston Emerson, Dwayne Bolton, Brant Imperatore, Dana Gresham Kathy Hammond, Doug Lee, Lois Lim, Jessica Rihani, Veer Shah and Anna Yanker of Mindset; Neal Patel and Jenny Forrest of Alpine Group, Jed Bhuta of Tower 19, Jocelyn Hong, Tim Wang of the Hudson Institute, Dao Nguyen of Cornerstone Government Affairs, Saat Alety of Federal Hall Policy Advisors, Teresa Davis of Booz Allen Hamilton, Howard Moon of Amgen and Will Le of Buchanan Ingersoll. — Christina Saull is joining APCO Worldwide to lead its transportation practice. She was most recently director of corporate communications at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Reagan National and Dulles International airports. — Bobby Kogan is joining the Center for American Progress as senior director of federal budget policy. He was most recently an adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and is a Senate Budget alum. — Aaron Ringel has joined American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers as vice president of government relations. He was most recently vice president for international policy and advocacy at the Coalition for a Prosperous America and is a State Department and Mike Pompeo alum. — Andrea Harris is joining Protect Our Care as its director of policy programs, where she'll lead the progressive advocacy group's efforts on supporting the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, including provisions covering the drug pricing and expanded Affordable Care Act plan subsidies. Harris most recently served as the chief of staff to Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.). — The Mortgage Bankers Association has hired Matt Jones as associate vice president of government housing finance and Brittney Prophete as public affairs specialist. Jones most recently served as the director of strategy and product development for Amerifirst Home Mortgage and is a Senate Banking and Senate Finance alum, and Prophete was previously with Ameriprise Financial. — Genevieve Wilkins has been promoted to executive vice president of creative at ROKK Solutions. She was previously senior vice president of creative. — Varun Sivaram is joining Ørsted as its group senior vice president for strategy and innovation. He previously served in the Biden administration as a senior adviser to Special Climate Envoy John Kerry. — Maggie Farry is now intergovernmental affairs director for Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs. She most recently was director of advocacy and government relations at Earn to Learn. — Heather Philpot is now executive vice president at Moore, a constituent experience management company. She previously was vice president at Tunnl. — Samuel Erickson is now press secretary for Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska). He most recently was comms and policy manager at Strategies 360. — Katie Fitzgerald has been named president and CEO of the Ronald McDonald House Charities. She most recently was president and COO of Feeding America.
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| | | Honest Hoosiers PAC (Super PAC)
Women for America (Hybrid PAC)
| | New Lobbying Registrations | | Boundary Stone Partners: Arbor Energy
Brian Walsh: Public Private Strategies Institute
Bridgeway Advocacy: Kobre & Kim LLP (For Preble Rish Haiti S.A.)
Capitol Counsel LLC: Electricity Canada
Capitol Counsel LLC: Umpqua Bank
Collective Strategies & Communications LLC (Formerly Collective Communications LLC): Bridger Aerospace Group, LLC
Congressional Partners: Harris-Stowe State University
Congressional Partners: Virginia Foundation For Community College Education
Covington & Burling LLP: Intellectual Keystone Technology LLC
Family Policy Alliance: Family Policy Alliance
Folger Square Group LLC: Jacobson, Magnuson, Anderson & Halloran P.C. On behalf Of The City Of Blaine, Mn
Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures, LLC: Hydrosat Inc.
Lemunyon Group, LLC: Perimeter Global Logistics
Monument Advocacy: Hstar Space Transport Corporation
Natural Resource Results LLC: Federal Forest Resource Coalition
Pamela Bradley: Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp
Somfy: Somfy
Stephen Ward Consulting, LLC: Santa Fe Farms, Inc Dba Element6 Dynamics
Thorn Run Partners: Pvs Chemical Solutions
Thorn Run Partners: University Of Portland
Van Scoyoc Associates: Myland Company, Inc.
| | New Lobbying Terminations | | Winn Strategies, LLC: Twin Logic Strategies On Behalf Of Carolina West Wireless
| | | | A message from Stop the Deficit Squawks: Groups like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget are helping MAGA Republicans force a debt limit crisis unless they get cuts to Social Security. Here’s the reality: the deficit squawks are funded by corporate and far-right special interests who are hell-bent on protecting the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations – all while dismantling vital and popular public investments and programs like Social Security and Medicare. Biases and ulterior motives drive the irresponsible policies these groups have been peddling for decades. Despite their cawing to the contrary, they are neither “experts” nor “objective” – and they shouldn’t be taken seriously by anyone who truly cares about smart federal budgets and an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthiest few. Learn more and sign up for our newsletter here. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
