ANNALS OF FUNDRAISING: “Oracle co-founder and Republican megadonor Larry Ellison is preparing to spend millions of dollars backing Sen. Tim Scott’s run for president,” CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports. — “The plans have been in motion since the 2022 midterms, when Ellison donated $30 million to a pro-Scott super PAC, Opportunity Matters Fund, according to people familiar with the Oracle executive chairman’s plans.” The super PAC has since been rebranded as Trust In The Mission PAC, or TIM PAC. — A Republican strategist and fundraiser close to Ellison — who attended Scott’s campaign launch in South Carolina this morning and whom Scott name-checked in that speech — told CNBC that Ellison is likely to double that $30 million figure in support of Scott. — “Another veteran Republican fundraiser told CNBC that Ellison is already planning to donate up to $10 million to the TIM PAC in the early going of Scott’s run. Ellison has signaled to allies that he could give at least between $20 million and $30 million more this cycle, this person said.” THE ROOTS OF TRANSGENDER HEALTH PUSHES: An Associated Press analysis of the recent flurry of state legislation targeting gender-affirming care for transgender minors found “that often those bills sprang not from grassroots or constituent demand, but from the pens of a handful of conservative interest groups,” AP’s Jeff McMillan, Kavish Harjai and Kimberlee Kruesi write. — “At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, though judges have temporarily blocked their enforcement in some,” and while the use of model legislation across statehouses is a well-worn tactic by interest groups, “in the case of restrictions on gender-affirming care for youths, they allow a handful of far-right groups to spread a false narrative based on distorted science, critics say.” — “The AP obtained the texts of more than 130 bills in 40 state legislatures from Plural, a public policy software company, and analyzed them for similarities to model bills peddled by the conservative groups Do No Harm, which also criticizes efforts to diversify staffing in medicine, and the Family Research Council, which has long been involved in abortion restrictions.” — “One of the clearest examples is in Montana, where nearly all the language in at least one bill can be found in Do No Harm’s model. Publicly available emails from December show the Republican sponsor, Sen. John Fuller, tweaked the model before introducing it weeks later. … Do No Harm’s model and the 2021 Arkansas bill endorsed as a model by the Family Research Council also have many similarities, including the assertion — rebutted by major medical organizations — that the risks of gender-affirming care outweigh its benefits.” SENATE COMMERCE AIDE HEADS TO K STREET: Crystal Tully is joining Wiley’s government relations team as special counsel. She most recently was general counsel for investigations and nominations at the Senate Armed Services Committee, but before that spent nearly a decade with the Senate Commerce Committee, eventually moving up to become the panel’s deputy GOP staff director. — Tully, who told PI that she plans on registering to lobby, said she expects to spend a lot of time working on spectrum issues as well as the awarding and oversight of broadband funding that was included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill. META PENALTY HIGHLIGHTS DATA PRIVACY LOGJAM: “With an unprecedented $1.3 billion fine Monday, Meta became the first American tech giant ordered to shut off its transatlantic flow of user data under European privacy rules — putting new pressure on the Biden administration to solve a major disconnect between American and European data regulations,” POLITICO’s Alfred Ng reports. — “The Irish Data Protection Commission found that Meta violated European data privacy regulations by transferring EU users’ data to the U.S. without a proper framework in place to protect EU citizens from American government surveillance. The agency fined Meta $1.3 billion — a record under Europe’s data privacy regulations — and ordered the company to stop transferring its data to U.S. servers.” — “The fine highlights the need for the Biden administration to finalize negotiations with the EU to get a transatlantic data deal in place. Without that, Meta could be the first of many U.S.-based companies to face similar penalties for similar conduct.” — “Companies could also look to make costly infrastructure investments to keep that data in the EU, but that could be cost-prohibitive for all but the largest. The gap affects not only major tech platforms like Meta, but virtually any American company, large or small, conducting transatlantic business with customers in Europe.”
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