BAE TAPS NEW LOBBYING LEAD: BAE Systems has promoted Reggie Robinson to senior vice president for government relations, heading up the defense contractor’s advocacy with members of Congress, the White House, Pentagon and other executive branch agencies as well as state government leaders. — Robinson has been with the company since 2014, most recently serving as vice president for the executive branch and international government relations. He succeeds Shelly O’Neill Stoneman in the new role following her departure to Lockheed Martin and will report to BAE President and CEO Tom Arseneault. FLIGHT ATTENDANTS PUSH FOR SELF DEFENSE MANDATES: “The Covid era’s surge in air rage incidents is aiding flight attendants’ demand for a benefit they’ve been seeking since 9/11 — legally mandated self-defense training,” per POLITICO’s Irie Sentner. — “A provision in a major Senate aviation policy bill would require airlines to train flight attendants to ‘subdue and restrain’ an attacker and defend themselves against weapons. The proposal comes after an unprecedented upswing in confrontations with unruly air passengers since 2020, which have forced flight crews to contend with everything from near stabbings to broken teeth.” — “‘Obviously the last three years have given us ample reasons for why self-defense is an important part of training for flight attendants,’ said Taylor Garland, a spokesperson for the Association of Flight Attendants, a union that has pushed for the training mandate.” — “Airlines in the past have argued that the costs of federal security mandates, including additional training, should fall on the government rather than private enterprise. The major U.S. airlines and their main trade group did not comment when asked their positions on the current Senate language.” — “‘The airlines were always loath to pay for it,’ said former Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who chaired the House Transportation Committee until early this year and led its aviation panel in 2001. DeFazio is now senior strategic advisor to lobbying firm Summit Strategies, though he has said he has no plans to register as a lobbyist.” — “Existing law already requires airlines to train their flight crews, including on self-defense. But some flight attendants say the current requirement, as written, allows too much room for interpretation,” while advanced trainings offered by TSA pose their own logistical issues for flight attendants. The Senate’s FAA bill would sharpen that language, though there is no guarantee it will survive negotiations to reconcile it with the House bill, which doesn’t go as far as flight attendants want. THE LATEST FLASHPOINT FOR ANTI-ABORTION LOBBYING: “Susan B. Anthony List, the most well-heeled anti-abortion group in the country, has jumped into the fray over reauthorizing the 20-year-old President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief as abortion politics on Capitol Hill imperil the program’s future,” POLITICO’s Megan Wilson reports. — “It marks the first time the group has lobbied on the bill, according to disclosures, and signals the intensifying pressure being put on Republicans to include language that would ban PEPFAR funding from going to any organizations that support abortion rights.” — “Anti-abortion organizations — including the National Right to Life Committee — have lobbied lawmakers on PEPFAR reauthorizations in the past, but Susan B. Anthony List is the most prominent, with a $16 million war chest, according to 2021 tax records, the most recent year available. In 2022, the group spent more than $1.1 million on lobbying. Susan B Anthony List was among the organizations that wrote to Congress demanding changes in May.” — Portions of the program expire on Sept. 30, “and the debate over its reauthorization has ignited a fight over what has historically been passed with relative ease — in 2018, the reauthorization bill was written by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who is now holding it up. As the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the bill, Smith is heeding the calls by anti-abortion groups.” — UNICEF USA’s recent hire of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld — and PEPFAR architect and former Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) — to lobby on the program would appear to be an acknowledgement of potential issues with reauthorization, though the firm declined to discuss its strategy. ANNALS OF BUNDLING: The Washington Post’s Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey report that “when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took office in 2019, his political team made a list of the state’s top 40 lobbyists and about 100 of their ‘Suggested Clients to target’ for political contributions, according to a fundraising document reviewed” by the paper, the latest revelations about DeSantis’ tactics to foster relationships with his major benefactors. — “Next to the name of each lobbyist was a dollar figure, an ‘ask’ that the DeSantis team hoped they would raise based on their book of clients, whose names were also listed in the document and included large corporations such as Disney and Motorola, as well as sports organizations, billionaires and interest groups with extensive business before the state.” — “While it is common for politicians to seek donations from lobbyists, the efforts by DeSantis to effectively auction off his leisure time to those seeking to influence state policy created a special pathway of access for wealthy donors to the governor that is striking in the way that it was documented in writing, ethics experts said.” — The Post reports the governor had direct involvement with the fundraising efforts, and spokesman for DeSantis “said campaign contributions did not determine his policies and there was nothing unusual about his fundraising operation.” — “‘Despite the Washington Post’s best efforts to sensationalize standard fundraising practices, donors never have and never will dictate policy for Ron DeSantis — just ask Disney,’ the campaign spokesman, Andrew Romeo, said in a statement, referring to the entertainment giant that donated at least $100,000 to DeSantis’s PAC before clashing with the governor over his legislation restricting classroom discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation.”
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