Everyone wants a byte of CHIPS

From: POLITICO Influence - Monday Mar 13,2023 09:43 pm
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By Caitlin Oprysko

With Daniel Lippman 

CHIPS LAW SPARKS A LOBBYING BONANZA: Washington is ready to unleash an unprecedented $52 billion to support the domestic microchip industry — and a startling array of companies are angling for a payday, Brendan Bordelon and I report for Pros. Among those who've been lobbying on the law are labor unions, the company that operates Snapchat, FedEx, home heating and cooling companies, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and even the pro-Israel lobby, according to lobbying disclosures and federal filings.

— The bulk of the money approved in last year’s CHIPS and Science Act is expected to go to established semiconductor giants like Intel and Samsung, which plan to build huge new fabrication plants with some financial help from Uncle Sam.

— But the new law has also attracted an armada of lobbyists eager to shape how it’s implemented. Some may be making long-shot bids — lobbyists for Snapchat parent company Snap, for example, plan to ask Washington to subsidize plans to build chips for its augmented reality glasses.

— Not everyone lobbying on the law is necessarily seeking subsidies. Still, the flood of filings illustrates the corporate free-for-all that ensues when Washington opens its checkbook. “This is a low-risk, high-reward maneuver,” said Scott Lincicome, director of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute. “It would almost be corporate malpractice to not go after that cash.”

— To Josh Teitelbaum, a lobbyist at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld who’s representing Snap in the company’s bid for CHIPS money, the lobbying frenzy is only natural: The ecosystem around the U.S. chip industry, he said, “is much broader than just the small handful of companies that do the actual fabrication.”

— “You could see some companies and industries weighing in that you might not necessarily expect to be there,” Teitelbaum said. “But all that is just an indication of how embedded chips are in our everyday lives.”

— The CHIPS and Science Act also earmarks roughly $200 billion in eventual funding for federal research agencies like the National Science Foundation on top of the tens of billions in chip subsidies — another big draw for lobbyists, given that the vast majority still needs to be appropriated by Congress. There’s “probably going to be a lot of folks lobbying to ensure that the actual appropriation occurs,” Lincicome said.

— That’s true for the XR Association, which represents the augmented and virtual reality industries and mounted a successful campaign to make “immersive technology” eligible for R&D funding under the bill. The trade group is now urging lawmakers to pour money into those programs.

— The five top U.S. tech firms — Apple, Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft — all lobbied on the bill at the end of last year, and of the five, only Meta explicitly told POLITICO it does not “have any plans to” apply for chip subsidies.

— Still others that are tracking the law are tech companies like Salesforce and Cisco Systems, the Amazon-owned audio book company Audible, telecom and health care companies, materials suppliers, unions, car companies hit hard by the microchip shortage, universities, local governments, and even national governments like the Republic of Korea.

Happy Monday and welcome to PI. Send lobbying tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

 

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REAL ESTATE DATA FIRM LOBBIES UP: Real estate data company CoStar Group brought on Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and Polaris Government Relations earlier this year, according to disclosures filed over the weekend, following accusations from lawmakers the the company might be engaging in anti-competitive practices in the commercial real estate market.

— The company, which operates Apartments.com, ApartmentFinder.com and ForRent.com, also provides data on millions of property listings for brokers across the country as the largest provider of such commercial real estate data and analytics in the country. CoStar hasn’t lobbied in Washington since the beginning of 2018, disclosures show.

— But my colleague Josh Cisco revealed earlier this year that the top lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel recently called for FTC Chair Lina Khan to launch an antitrust investigation into the firm.

— “[W]e are concerned that Costar may be employing practices that effectively lock in commercial real estate brokers to use CoStar’s platform to the exclusion of rivals,” Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote in a letter to Khan in December. They accused CoStar of “erecting artificial barriers to prevent brokers from taking their own data to competing platforms,” a charge the company denied.

— CoStar has previously run up against antitrust concerns — the FTC in 2020 sued to block a proposed deal between CoStar and RentPath, the owner of Rent.com and ApartmentGuide.com. Last month, a federal judge dismissed an antitrust lawsuit filed by rival platform Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc.

BANK FAILURES RIPPLE ACROSS K STREET: Friday’s collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and Sunday’s closure of Signature Bank, couldn’t have come at a worse time for bank lobbyists, our Zach Warmbrodt reports. Just days earlier, “big bank lobbyists and executives were triumphant. They had convinced key GOP lawmakers to publicly warn Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell against tightening regulations on the industry. Now, the months-long campaign is in jeopardy.”

— “The world’s attention is focused on whether the U.S. banking system is safe. And bank lobbyists believe the Fed may now be encouraged to press ahead with tougher rules that it was just beginning to discuss before the meltdown. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned mere hours after Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse that ‘regulators must not buckle to pressure’ in response to the bank lobbying barrage that had been underway.”

— “The rules that the big bank lobby was focused on before SVB’s failure dealt with the capital funding buffers that lenders are required to maintain so they can absorb losses during downturns and spare taxpayers from having to bail them out.”

— The effort “bore fruit last week when Powell testified before the House and Senate” and was prodded by mainly GOP lawmakers who “warned him about raising capital requirements … Then on Friday, regulators rushed to rescue SVB, and lobbyists began panicking that their push on capital might be in trouble. Critics immediately connected the dots.”

SVB CHIEF LOBBIED FOR WEAKER RISK REGULATIONS: “Eight years before the second-largest bank failure in American history occurred this week, the bank’s president personally pressed Congress to reduce scrutiny of his financial institution, citing the ‘low risk profile of our activities and business model,’” The Lever’s Rebecca Burns, David Sirota, Julia Rock and Andrew Perez report.

— Three years and half a million dollars in lobbying later, lawmakers obliged by passing a bipartisan rollback of more stringent risk protections that were put in place following the 2008 financial crisis.

— In testimony submitted to the Senate in 2015, SVB’s president, Greg Becker, pushed to raise the threshold for subjecting banks like his to increased oversight known as “enhanced prudential standards.” Becker complained that leaving the threshold as is would cause the bank “to divert significant resources from providing financing to job-creating companies in the innovation economy to complying” with the requirements.

— Former President Donald Trump signed the bill containing the higher threshold Becker proposed “despite a report from Democrats on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee warning that under the new law, SVB and other banks of its size ‘would no longer be subject to nearly any enhanced regulations.’”

CLYDE GROUP ADDS 10: Clyde Group has added Tamara Shaw and Jeanine Kober as health care vice presidents, Annick Bickson as health care account director, Talia Scharf as assistant account executive for health care, Caitlin Harder as account director, Keila Lawrence as assistant account executive, Caleb Klemick and Ashley Sammann as account coordinators, Connor Penegar as media relations specialist and Khanh Dang as creative coordinator.

HOW PRAS MICHEL GOT HERE: Rolling Stone’s Michael Ames profiles the Fugees rapper ahead of his trial this month on a slew of charges, including failure to register as a foreign agent — allegedly as part of a scheme that also involved the GOP financiers Steve Wynn and Elliott Broidy — and illegal contributions to former President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign.

— “When Pras’ trial begins March 27 in the U.S. Federal Court for the District of Columbia, the jury will hear conflicting versions of an inherently confusing story. They will adjourn to their jury room to debate the finer points of federal election law, ponder the legislative spirit of FARA, and do their best to determine what Pras did differently than many others involved who got off easier.”

— “To this, the defense will counter, with the aid of 2.7 million pages of discovery documents, that Pras has only ended up here — as the single, suitable fall guy for the crimes of many — because he refused to play ball and take” a plea deal, while others involved in the case faced no charges, pleaded guilty for more lenient sentences, were pardoned, or received immunity.

Jobs Report

Amy Brink is joining the American Beverage Association as senior vice president for external affairs. She was most recently vice president of state government affairs at Alliance for Automotive Innovation.

Lisa Malloy is now senior vice president for communications at BAE Systems. She was most recently head of global government and manufacturing communications at Intel.

Dane Pedersen is now a government relations and policy specialist with Bracewell LLP’s policy resolution group. He previously was manager of policy, communications and strategic partnerships at D&P Creative Strategies.

Marshall Cohen is now a partner at KMM Strategies and will be opening its first D.C. office. He most recently was political director at the Democratic Governors Association.

Janice deGarmo is joining the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University as its first chief operating officer. DeGarmo was most recently director of the Office of Management Strategy and Solutions at the State Department.

Ansley Bradwell is now a director at the Herald Group. She previously was press secretary for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Daniel Gleick is now deputy director for media relations at NARAL Pro-Choice America. He previously was communications director and senior adviser for former Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.).

Phillip Jerez is now deputy director of engagement for Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. He previously was political director for Charlie Crist’s Florida gubernatorial campaign.

New Joint Fundraisers

None.

New PACs

Democracy Protection Project (Hybrid PAC)
Fairer NJ (Super PAC)
Forward Blue (Super PAC)
Newer Jersey PAC (Hybrid PAC)
Rural USA PAC (Super PAC)
TJD PAC (Super PAC)
TXNPAC - Texas Nonpartisan PAC (Hybrid PAC)

New Lobbying Registrations

Alston & Bird LLP: Cheyenne International LLC
American Capitol Group: Canoe The Caney
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Costar
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: National Resilience, Inc.
Capgov, LLC: City Of Buena Vista
Capgov, LLC: City Of Lexington, Virginia
Capitol Counsel LLC: Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.
Capitol Counsel LLC: Philly Shipyard
Delta Development Group, Inc.: Brockway Borough Municipal Authority
Delta Development Group, Inc.: Mifflin County Academy Of Science And Technology
Delta Development Group, Inc.: Mifflin County Board Of Commissioners
Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures, LLC: Unaka Company, Inc. On Behalf Of Meco Corporation
Kearney, Donovan & Mcgee: Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership
Keefe Singiser Partners, Fka Keefe Strategies LLC: Americans For Contraception
Lne Group: City Of White Sulphur Springs, Wv
Lne Group: Southern West Virginia Community & Technical College
Polaris Government Relations, LLC: Costar Group
Security Finance: Security Finance
The Jackson Group, LLC: Verdego Aero
The Mckeon Group, Inc.: Oracle America, Inc
Tiber Creek Group: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Van Scoyoc Associates: National Automated Merchandising Association

New Lobbying Terminations

Actum I, LLC: American Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee
Porter Group, LLC: Boxabl Inc.
Porter Group, LLC: White Pine County Nv
Tiber Creek Group: Mcdermott Will & Emery LLP (Obo Alnylam Pharmaceuticals)

 

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