GIG COMPANIES TAKE AIM AT SU: Flex, the coalition of gig companies that launched last year to protect the industry’s business model, “is demanding the Biden administration refrain from issuing a high-profile rule on gig workers until a Senate-confirmed secretary heads the department,” POLITICO’s Jennifer Haberkorn reports. — In a letter to President Joe Biden on Monday, the group’s chief executive, Kristin Sharp, argued that any new rules and regulations issued by Julie Su while serving as the acting head of the Labor Department would be on shaky legal ground — echoing warnings from Republicans and offering a likely preview of the challenges Su faces since the White House has opted to keep her in the role indefinitely in light of Su’s uncertain confirmation prospects. — “Any action taken to finalize the proposed worker classification regulation under Ms. Su’s current leadership as Acting Secretary would circumvent the Senate’s constitutional role of providing advice and consent on nominees,” wrote Sharp, whose group opposed Su’s nomination and represents Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Grubhub, Instacart, Shipt and HopSkipDrive. “The Department should not finalize its worker classification proposal before having a permanent Secretary.” — App-based companies have thrown up fierce resistance to efforts to re-classify their workers as employees rather than independent contractors, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a 2020 fight over a California ballot referendum and bulking up their footprints in Washington as the Biden administration has sought to do the same. FLYING IN: The American Retirement Association is in town this week to push for a series of fixes to last year’s bipartisan retirement bill. They’ve got more than 100 meetings scheduled, including 18 member-level huddles with lawmakers including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.). — Members of the group will ask for changes to the contribution limits for so-called starter 401(k) plans and a fix to lawmakers’ unintended elimination of catch-up contributions beginning next year, and they’ll also push lawmakers to oppose the creation of a federally sponsored retirement program for lower- and middle-income workers. NORMANDY GROUP LOBBYIST LAUNCHES FIRM: Jim Kiley, who was previously a partner at the Normandy Group for the past five years, has launched his own lobbying firm, Kiley Capitol Solutions. He’s already registered two new clients, the Leading Builders of America — a coalition of homebuilding companies — and the Lowe Syndrome Association, a nonprofit that advocates for more research on Lowe syndrome. — Before joining Normandy Group, Kiley was director of global public policy at General Motors for more than a decade and a lobbyist for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (now the Alliance for Automotive Innovation). DEM DONOR PURCHASED HUNTER BIDEN ART: Insider’s Mattathias Schwartz reports that despite the White House’s insistence that buyers of first son Hunter Biden’s paintings would be vetted and kept secret from Hunter, the first son “did, in fact, learn the identity of two buyers, according to three people directly familiar with his own account of his art career,” though the timing of their purchase remains unknown. — One of the buyers is “Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a Los Angeles real-estate investor and philanthropist. Hirsh Naftali is influential in California Democratic circles and a significant Democratic donor who has given $13,414 to the Biden campaign and $29,700 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this year. In 2022, she hosted a fundraiser headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris.” — “Insider also obtained internal documents from Hunter Biden's gallery showing that a single buyer purchased $875,000 worth of his art. The documents do not indicate the buyer's identity, which is also unknown to Insider at this time.” — “In July 2022, eight months after Hunter Biden's first art opening, Joe Biden announced Hirsh Naftali's appointment to the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. It is unclear whether Hirsh Naftali's purchase of Hunter Biden's artwork occurred before or after that appointment.” — “Membership on the commission is an unpaid position often filled by campaign donors, family members, and political allies — the same crowd that often winds up with US ambassadorial appointments,” which an administration official said came at the recommendation of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and had no connection to her art purchases.
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