With Daniel Lippman WHO’S LOBBYING ON THE DEBT CEILING: Dozens of organizations reported lobbying on Washington’s game of chicken on raising the debt limit ahead of Wednesday’s vote by House Republicans to send their opening offer to certain death in the Senate. — A PI analysis of lobbying disclosures from last quarter reveals several different camps of interest on the extending the nation’s borrowing limit — from groups merely monitoring the matter, to advocating explicitly for a no-strings-attached debt ceiling hike to avert a likely economic catastrophe. — Players in the health care spaces have been especially engaged on the issue, according to disclosures, as organizations like AARP, the Alliance For Retired Americans, the American Hospital Association, the Federation of American Hospitals, the American Society of Anesthesiologists and even individual hospitals and systems like Texas Children’s Hospital paid their lobbyists to “keep Medicaid off the table during debt ceiling negotiations.” — Financial institutions and trade groups like Truist, Vanguard and Huntington Bank and the American Bankers Association reported lobbying on the issue too, along with partisan advocacy groups like the Heritage Foundation, FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, Demand Progress and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and unions like the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, National Air Traffic Controllers Association, National Treasury Employees Union and UAW. — Energy firms like Constellation Energy, Missouri River Energy Services and American Municipal Power and environmental groups like Earthjustice and the League of Conservation Voters reported monitoring the debt ceiling hike as well, especially with House Republicans seeking to use the fiscal standoff to gut Democrats’ new tax and climate spending law. — Local government entities like the Savannah Airport Commission in Georgia and the Northern California Power Agency, Foothill Transit agency and Los Angeles County in California, meanwhile, had lobbyists tracking the debt limit fight’s potential effect on state and local funding. — Other familiar names include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose top lobbyist Neil Bradley on Wednesday implored the White House to “meet with Congressional leaders without delay to find a path forward” on the debt ceiling and “runaway deficits.” The Business Roundtable — which said following passage of the House debt plan it hoped the proposal would “jump-start bipartisan negotiations on raising the debt ceiling as soon as possible” — lobbied on the matter as well. The lobbying arm of the Bipartisan Policy Center, meanwhile, reported lobbying on reforms for the debt limit process. Happy Thursday and welcome to PI. Send any hot lobbying gossip you pick up during parties this week: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. DELTA REVIVES FIGHT FOR MORE FLIGHTS OUT OF DCA: A coalition of business groups and Delta Air Lines is taxiing toward another showdown with DMV lawmakers and rival United Airlines to push for more long-haul flights out of Reagan National Airport, POLITICO’s Alex Daugherty writes. — The Capital Access Alliance, which also includes the Latino Restaurant Association and California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, is calling for Congress to expand the number of flights that can land or take off from DCA beyond the restricted perimeter of 1,250 miles as part of this year’s FAA reauthorization bill, arguing the status quo “is making air travel longer and more expensive, while also harmful to businesses and the environment.” — The coalition’s push is a perennial one that stems from a 60-year-old rule that aimed to both reduce noise pollution and traffic in Northern Virginia, D.C. and Maryland and boost then-new Dulles International Airport, a United hub. Over the years, Congress has gradually expanded the DCA perimeter, which now stretches to about halfway across Texas, or carved out exemptions for direct flights to cities like Los Angeles, Denver and Seattle. FLYING IN: The National Motorsports Coalition brought nearly two dozen racing executives and drivers to the Hill on Wednesday for their first annual fly-in since before the pandemic, where they discussed how best to support the industry with more than 30 offices across the Capitol. — Tomorrow, nearly 90 pediatricians will be on the Hill to push for gun reforms, citing gun violence’s place as the leading cause of death for children in the U.S. gun violence. The effort, dubbed #OnCall4Kids, is being organized in part by March Fourth, a group that grew out of the Highland Park, Ill., parade shooting. Advocates are set to meet with at least 40 offices across the House and Senate. — Meanwhile the National Community Pharmacists Association is wrapping up its fly-in, which drew hundreds of community pharmacists from across the country and featured remarks from House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya. — Independent pharmacists met with Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to advocate for a crackdown on pharmaceutical middlemen. — Small business leaders from around the country will also be in town tomorrow with the tech-backed advocacy group Connected Commerce Council to meet with Senate offices ahead of National Small Business Week. They’re set to meet with staff for Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and will push back against bills to rein in the tech industry and lobby for a “balanced” federal data privacy law. PENTAGON OFFICIALS GRILLED OVER REVOLVING DOOR RULES: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., grilled Defense Department lawyers on Wednesday over the ‘revolving door’ between former Pentagon officials, military officers, lawmakers and congressional staff going on to lobby for the defense industry,” Defense News’ Bryant Harris reports. — “Warren, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel, convened the hearing the same day her office released a report that found 672 instances in 2022 of former government and congressional officials working as ‘lobbyists, board members or senior executives’ for the top 20 defense contractors. The study found that 91% of those employees became registered lobbyists for the contractors.” — “‘Because federal contracts are so profitable for defense companies, these companies want the inside track on how to win those contracts,’ Warren said at the hearing. ‘A preferred strategy is to hire former Pentagon employees to put together the bids and then to present them to their former colleagues in government.’” — Caroline Krass, the Pentagon’s general counsel, pushed back on Warren’s calls for expanded ethics restrictions for the Defense Department, arguing that new rules just for DoD could create “unnecessary complexity and confusion and may also put us at a disadvantage in our recruitment and retention perspective.” — Meanwhile Danielle Brian, who leads the Project On Government Oversight, “pointed to the Navy’s failed efforts last year to retire nine littoral combat ships early because of design flaws that created numerous problems — retirements that Congress partially prevented” following a lobbying blitz by the industry. — Warren and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) also grilled the Pentagon lawyers over the scores of former defense officials that have found lucrative work consulting for foreign governments since leaving the Pentagon, as highlighted by The Washington Post last year. DOJ GETS A FARA CONVICTION: “A jury on Wednesday convicted Grammy Award-winning rapper Prakazrel "Pras" Michel of The Fugees hip hop group on criminal charges that he conspired with a Malaysian financier to orchestrate a series of foreign lobbying campaigns aimed at influencing the U.S. government under two presidents,” per Reuters’ Sarah Lynch, a win for the Justice Department’s FARA crackdown following a string of legal setbacks. — “Michel's lawyer David Kenner told reporters outside the courthouse he was ‘extremely disappointed’ by the verdict, but remains hopeful the charges could be dismissed by the judge. … ‘I remain enormously confident that this case is not over, and that we will ultimately prevail,’ he added.”
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