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Presented by the National Coalition For Accessible Voting: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | Presented by the National Coalition For Accessible Voting | With Daniel Lippman and Theodoric Meyer CORNERSTONE ADDS 2: Katelyn Bunning has departed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office, where she rose through the ranks for more than a decade to become his legislative director, and joined Cornerstone Government Affairs as a lobbyist. Bunning, who McConnell called an “all-star” and a “key adviser” on whom relied on “extensively” during a farewell floor speech earlier this month, will lobby for a variety of clients across several policy areas, she told PI. — Cornerstone will also soon add Shanetta Paskel, who serves as senior director of federal and state government relations for student loan servicer Navient. Paskel will lobby federal on higher education and financial services issues as well as transportation and infrastructure, and said in an interview she will focus mostly on Hill Democrats. HOTELS, HOSPITALITY WORKERS UNION UNVEIL RELIEF PROPOSAL: The lodging industry’s top trade group, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, along with the hospitality industry’s largest union, UNITE HERE, teamed up this morning to roll out a new bill from Rep. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) that would offer the industry an economic lifeline as it struggles to recover from the pandemic, the latest targeted relief proposal on the Hill. — The Save Hotel Jobs Act calls for payroll grants that could be used for payroll and benefits expenses for industry employees, while requiring recipients to provide laid-off hotel workers recall rights so they are able to return to work. It would also provide payroll tax credits for as much as half the cost of purchasing personal protective equipment and implement other technology or procedures to mitigate health concerns. — “The pandemic has left millions of hotel employees out of work and many more struggling to get by with less hours. They need help,” Schatz said in a statement. Crist argued that the bill would help workers and their employers “get to the other side” of a “devastating year for the Florida tourism industry.” — “Millions of jobs and thousands of businesses are at risk—not just hotels, but the many businesses and workers hotels also support in the community,” Chip Rogers , AHLA’s president and chief executive, said in a statement, adding that pandemic-related closures and restrictions had “wiped out 10 years of job growth in our industry.” Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Your host will be taking leave in lovely Austin, Texas, over the next few days, but you’ll be in good hands with PI alum Theo Meyer for the rest of the week. Send lobbying tips and gossip to tmeyer@politico.com and send your Austin recs (along with your K Street tips for next week) to coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow us both on Twitter: @theodricmeyer and @caitlinoprysko. | | A message from the National Coalition For Accessible Voting: The For The People Act (S.1) presents an historic opportunity to establish a new set of national standards to increase voting access. However, the bill's current language also eliminates accessible options needed for millions of Americans with disabilities. Congress has affirmed for decades that voters with disabilities must have equal access to cast their ballot. Learn how the Senate can protect accessible voting options in S.1 here. | | | WHAT THE CHAMBER WANTS TO HEAR FROM BIDEN TONIGHT: When President Joe Biden appears before a (pared-down) joint session of Congress tonight, he will unveil “a sweeping, $1.8 trillion plan to invest in social welfare and family assistance programs aimed at redistributing the nation's wealth and lifting millions of Americans out of poverty,” POLITICO’s Megan Cassella and Laura Barron-Lopez report, a proposal he intends to fund with a round of tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans and stepped up tax enforcement, to be paired with proposed corporate tax increases to fund the roughly $2 trillion infrastructure plan he laid out earlier this month. — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is hoping Biden decides to go a different route, however, spurning the tax hikes and making a pitch that Republican lawmakers can get on board with, Chamber CEO Suzanne Clark wrote in a blog post Tuesday. — “As someone who spent more than 35 years in the Senate, President Biden knows that bipartisanship and consensus is the only way to get big, important, difficult things done in a meaningful and durable way,” Clark wrote. She also called on Biden to work to reopen schools, phase out enhanced unemployment assistance introduced during the pandemic and overhaul the immigration system, while ditching proposals like the PRO Act’s labor law overhaul, in addition to his tax hike plan. FEDS SEARCH GIULIANI’S APARTMENT: “Federal investigators in Manhattan executed search warrants early Wednesday at the home and office of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who became President Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer,” The New York Times’ William K. Rashbaum, Ben Protess and Maggie Haberman report. — The pre-dawn raid, during which investigators reportedly seized Giuliani’s electronics, amounts to a major escalation into a criminal investigation into Giuliani’s work in Ukraine and and whether he illegally lobbied Trump on behalf of officials and oligarchs there who were also helping Giuliani find dirt on then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. SENATORS WANT MORE SANCTIONS ON MYANMAR JUNTA: “A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Tuesday urged the Biden administration to slap more sanctions on the military junta in Myanmar, including choking revenues to a state energy company, in response to its coup and violent crackdown on protesters,” Reuters’ Timothy Gardner reports. — In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called on the administration to “explore new avenues to support the people of Burma in their ongoing struggle for democracy in the face of escalating crimes against humanity.” — The lawmakers in particular want “the Biden administration to stop royalties flowing from businesses including U.S. energy major Chevron Corp to Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, or MOGE, an agency within the Energy Ministry” and which provides financial support to military leaders, including at least one already under sanction. — The request came days after The New York Times reported that Chevron had deployed its lobbyists to try and head off further sanctions in the country, arguing more penalties could “endanger the long-term viability of a big Myanmar gas field in which it is a partner, risk worsening a humanitarian crisis for people who rely on the operation for power and expose the company’s employees to criminal charges,” according to the paper. | | | | JOIN AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION, SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST": Power is shifting in Washington and across the country. 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Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | NEARLY 8K APPLICANTS FOR VENUE RELIEF PROGRAM IN FIRST DAY: The Small Business Administration’s portal for members of the shuttered live events industry accepted nearly 8,000 applications in its first 24 hours, according to a spokesperson for a key group that lobbied for the targeted relief program. — “This is the first morning that I woke up without having an anxiety dream since March 11,” of last year, Audrey Fix Schaefer, communications director for the National Independent Venue Association, said in an interview on Tuesday. NIVA, which formed last spring, was among a coalition of other industry groups who pushed for government aid before it was finally included in December’s relief bill. — Applications for the $16 billion program initially opened earlier this month before quickly crashing and being offline for weeks. SBA then announced the portal would reopen this past weekend before shifting the date to Monday amid protests over the timing. Schaefer said thus far things were going smoothly for the application process, which she and Ed Pagano, who lobbied for NIVA at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld , credited the White House and the program’s bipartisan congressional backers for getting the program back online. FLYING IN (VIRTUALLY): The Hill is still awash (virtually) with advocacy groups, the latest of which being the 17 clean water groups, including the National Association of Clean Water Agencies and Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies , who urged lawmakers to invest in clean water infrastructure on Tuesday. — Meanwhile Finseca, a trade group representing life insurers and financial planners, has conducted more than 100 virtual member and staff-level meetings on the Hill this month, including with Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.). TEACHERS UNIONS GAVE BIG TO DEMS LAST QUARTER: “As debates raged earlier this year over reopening schools and including money for education in a massive coronavirus relief package, the nation’s largest teachers unions sharply increased their spending on political contributions, a comparison to the same period in 2019 shows.” According to Roll Call’s Kate Ackley, “the money overwhelmingly went to Democrats, who had just taken control of the White House and the Senate while retaining House control.” — The American Federation of Teachers political action committee gave $1.6 million to congressional candidates and committees, including $1 million to House Majority PAC, a super PAC that boosts Democratic candidates,” versus “just $45,000 to federal committees in the first three months of 2019,” while the National Education Association ’s PAC “increased its federal donations by 38 percent, shelling out $371,000 in this year’s first quarter compared with $269,000 in the same period of 2019.” POLITICAL LAW FIRMS MERGE: Atlanta-based GOP law firm Chalmers & Adams has merged with conservative election law attorney Dan Backer’s political.law . Backer, who was the plaintiff's counsel in McCutcheon v. FEC, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down aggregate contribution limits, will be a member at the new firm, which will retain the name Chalmers & Adams. | | | | A message from the National Coalition For Accessible Voting:   | | | | | | — Blake Fulenwider has returned to Total Spectrum/Steve Gordon and Associates as a partner and plans to register as a federal lobbyist. He was previously Georgia’s chief health policy officer and is also a former aide to Nathan Deal while he was Georgia’s governor and while he was in Congress. — CRD Associates has hired Zachary Kiser as a vice president. He most recently served as a staffer for the Senate Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis and is a Sherrod Brown alum. — Angela Kouters is joining FairVote as director of government affairs. She was previously chief of staff to Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) and is an Amy Klobuchar presidential alum. — Hannah Mooney Mack will be the director of biopharma communications for the life sciences company Avantor. She most recently was director of public affairs at PhRMA. — Kellen Company has added Rosario Palmieri as vice president for operations and advocacy for trade associations in the building, construction, and materials industry and Diana Gardner as vice president in the communications practice. Palmieri previously served as associate administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB, and Gardner was most recently vice president for client development at IPM Advancement. — Sacha Haworth has joined Siegel Strategies as a partner. She most recently ran the paid media program for American Bridge 21st Century and is a DCCC and House Majority PAC alum. — Frank Voyack is being promoted to vice president of government relations at Norfolk Southern, succeeding Marque Ledoux, who is retiring. — Matt Erskine will be chief strategy officer at Connected DMV, while former Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation officer Sarah Bauder has been named vice president of development and workforce initiatives. — Bruce Johnson is now director of federal affairs and assistant general counsel for policy at Brex. He was most recently deputy chief oversight counsel for the House Financial Services Committee. — Jeff Le is now vice president for public policy at fintech startup Rhino. He was previously U.S. state and local public policy lead with VMWare. — Evan Ross is joining Purple Strategies as a paid media strategist. He most recently has been a managing supervisor at FleishmanHillard. | | | | CHECK OUT FDA TODAY: Daily regulatory developments, sent directly to your inbox. AgencyIQ's daily newsletter, FDA Today, provides readers with actionable and insightful explanations of the latest FDA developments impacting the life sciences industry. Sign up for free today. | | | | | | | | California Senate Victory 2022 (Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), DSCC) | | | Folded Flag PAC (Leadership PAC: Harold Earls)
Positron Progressive Action (PAC) | | New Lobbying Registrations | | Clark Hill, Plc: Gmto Corporation
Invariant LLC: Center For Organ Recovery & Education (Lobbying On Behalf Of Donor Alliance)
Mercury Strategies, LLC: Spacex (Aka Space Exploration Technologies Corp.)
Mercury Strategies, LLC: United States Telecom Association
Monument Advocacy: Millennium Strategies
Penn Hill Group: Bipartisan Policy Center Action, Inc.
Plurus Strategies, LLC: Dte Energy Company
Plurus Strategies, LLC: Mediatek USa Inc.
Plurus Strategies, LLC: Watereuse Association
Sidley Austin LLP: Comdata, Inc.
The Livingston Group, LLC: Ayass Bioscience LLC
W Strategies, LLC: Thermo Fisher Scientific | | New Lobbying Terminations | | Ernest C Baynard Iv: Data Robot
Mercury Strategies, LLC: T-Mobile USa Inc
Mercury Strategies, LLC: Tocqueville Group | | A message from the National Coalition For Accessible Voting: We call on the Senate to amend S.1 to protect voting options already available in 31 states and ensure that disabled voters are not left behind. The paper ballot mandate must include an exemption for voters with disabilities and other absentee voters covered under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act. Paper is not and cannot be accessible for all voters, especially blind and print disabled voters. The Senate should also expand the number of required accessible machines per polling place to provide a sufficient number of options and avoid segregating voters with disabilities. Lastly, we urge the Senate to direct the EAC to develop standards for remote, accessible ballot marking systems and increase funding for the research, development, and piloting of new, fully accessible voting systems. These changes will ensure that all voters, including those with disabilities, have equal access to the ballot box. Learn more here. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
