|
Presented by Emergent BioSolutions: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | Presented by |  | | | With Daniel Lippman CLAY HEADS TO K STREET: Former Congressman Lacy Clay, who represented St. Louis in the House for two decades before his primary defeat last year by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) is joining the law and lobbying firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman as a senior policy adviser. In an interview, Clay noted that he is barred from lobbying his former colleagues or registering as a foreign agent for a year by federal ethics rules but didn’t rule out registering to lobby once his “cooling off” period has ended. — “For now, I am focused on getting to know the firm's many clients and providing insights that can help them — they and my new Pillsbury colleagues will be able to rely on me as someone well versed in the sometimes convoluted workings of the government,” he told PI. Clay’s chief of staff on the Hill, Yvette Cravins, is also joining Pillsbury as a senior counsel. NIVA FORMS A PAC: The National Independent Venues Association, a trade group that formed at the start of the pandemic last year to represent concert and other entertainment venues and lobby for targeted relief for the industry, has formed NIVA PAC in the wake of its legislative victory last December. — The group, with assistance from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld , secured $16 billion in funding for a grant program for shuttered venues that the Small Business Administration finally got up and running last month after a few false starts, and now NIVA wants to thank its congressional backers, who include Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). (The Save Our Stages Act, off which the aid program was based, had 232 co-sponsors in total across both chambers of Congress.) — “NIVA is here to stay as the voice for independent music venues, promoters and festivals,” Audrey Fix Schaefer , a spokesperson for the group and for several D.C.-area venues, told PI. “We naturally want to support our Congressional champions and will continue being active in future national legislative initiatives impacting small business and the live events ecosystem.” | | | | A message from Emergent BioSolutions: At Emergent, we make things you never thought you’d need — until you do. Until you need to counteract an opioid overdose. Or need protection against smallpox, anthrax, cholera, or botulism. And now, we’re in the fight against COVID-19. At Emergent, we take on public health challenges. In facilities, we work to help protect public health. And that’s why We Go. | | | Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Tips: coprysko@politico.com. Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. RESOLUTION ADDS LOWEY CHIEF: Elizabeth Stanley , who served as the longtime chief of staff to former House Appropriations Chair Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) prior to Lowey’s retirement this year, is joining Resolution Public Affairs as a principal. In a statement provided by the firm, Lowey called Stanley an “invaluable asset” to her work on the committee, while Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Stanley’s “deep knowledge of House Democrats’ policy and political priorities has been invaluable to the entire Caucus” over the years. She’ll advise clients on the approps process as well as pandemic and disaster recovery, health research and development, nonprofit security, consumer safety, and more, according to the firm. LENDERS PREPARE TO COUNTER BIDEN TAX ENFORCEMENT PUSH: “Banks are gearing up to lobby against President Joe Biden's plan for having them help the IRS collect billions of dollars in unpaid taxes to bolster financing for trillions in spending on infrastructure, education and other programs,” POLITICO’s Kellie Medjrich and Aaron Lorenzo report. — Lenders’ opposition to the proposal, which has not yet been fleshed out, centers on “an envisioned requirement to have them report account inflows and outflows annually as part of government efforts to root out lawbreakers. Bankers say that while they support the goal of cracking down on tax evaders, their participation would raise a variety of potential problems, including threats to privacy and data security, increased compliance costs and damage to customer relationships.” DLA PIPER LAUNCHES STATE AG PRACTICE: Law and lobbying firm DLA Piper today announced the creation of a new state attorneys general practice, led by partners Scott Wilson and Jeff Tsai, former officials in New York and California’s AG offices respectively. Matthew Denn , the former attorney general of Delaware, will also be part of the team, which will include former federal prosecutors, trial attorneys, senior policy officials and other former federal officials. — “In recent years, state AGs have been the single most aggressive regulators in the country—regardless of the federal administration in power,” Tsai said in an email, while Wilson argued that responding to inquiries from state attorneys general “requires a specialized focus” due in part to their status as elected officials whose offices have “incredibly broad-ranging investigatory and enforcement powers under state law that rival and in some cases exceed those of their federal counterparts.” | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | INFRASTRUCTURE TEA LEAVES: “Senate Republicans are signaling that they could raise the price tag of their infrastructure offer to” Biden as the White House gears up for several key meetings “that could make-or-break Biden’s hopes for a bipartisan deal,” POLITICO’s Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine report. — “‘The first offer is meant to be countered, so I would imagine that none of those figures are solid,’ said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who is leading the negotiations on the GOP side. Republicans’ openness to spending more, and not drawing a red line at their initial offer, comes at a critical moment for the infrastructure talks that have consumed Washington. — “Progressive Democratic senators are growing impatient with the GOP for undercutting Biden’s $2 trillion-plus proposal, piling pressure on Republicans to either go higher or get left behind by a party-line Democratic bill.” While Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) “said that while Republicans would consider more infrastructure spending, it would require a different approach from the White House too. ‘I would hope the administration is going to pare their proposal way back and really start looking at what core infrastructure is,’ Fischer said.” AD WARS: “Several progressive organizations have banded together to launch a new influence campaign to target groups, such as billionaire Charles Koch’s political network, which have pushed back on significant elements of President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar agenda,” CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports. — The campaign, dubbed “Stop Deficit Squawks,” launched Monday with nearly 20 groups participating “including Patriotic Millionaires, a group of millionaires who believe the rich should pay higher taxes. Activist groups Indivisible and Tax March, which is currently running a [separate] campaign calling for higher taxes, are also involved.” — “The effort will initially target the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. All of these groups have either pushed back or lobbied against aspects of Biden’s massive spending agenda, which is geared toward revamping infrastructure, increasing green technology, and providing health and education aid to families.” — Meanwhile One Nation, an outside group aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, “is launching a seven-figure wave of TV and radio ads this week aimed to build opposition to S. 1 (117), Democrats' election reform legislation” being marked up today, POLITICO’s James Arkin reports. — The political nonprofit is shelling out “nearly $1.9 million across five states over the next 10 days” and are “the first spending from the outside group so far in 2021, demonstrating Republicans’ focus on opposing the election legislation, which is a top priority cosponsored by nearly the entire Democratic caucus. The ads are running in three states that are top targets for Republicans in the 2022 midterms — TV and radio ads in New Hampshire, TV ads in Arizona and radio ads in Nevada — as well as two states, West Virginia and Montana, represented by moderate Democratic senators.” CHINA’S XINHUA FINALLY REGISTERS AS FOREIGN AGENT: Three years after the Justice Department ordered it to, Chinese state-run media outlet Xinhua formally registered as a foreign agent last week, revealing more information about the outlet’s finances in the process. “Its new FARA filing disclosed $8.6 million in payments since March 2020 from Xinhua's Chinese parent to its U.S. arm, including payments directly to bureaus in Washington, Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco and Chicago,” Axios’ Lachlan Markay reports. —”According to the Center for Responsive Politics , Chinese foreign agent spending has skyrocketed from just over $10 million in 2016 to nearly $64 million last year,” making it “the top spender on foreign influence operations in the U.S.” and joining other state-run news outlets that have accounted for the bulk of Beijing’s FARA spending in the U.S. in recent years. | | | | A message from Emergent BioSolutions:   | | | | | | — The Commission on the Future of Mobility hired Marla Westervelt as director of policy and Ashley Simmons as director of strategic communications. Westervelt most recently worked for MobilityData IO and is a Bird, L.A. Metro and Eno Center alum, and Simmons was most recently head of REVVIT Public Relations, which she founded. — Christopher Gray is now vice president in the office of strategic engagement at the American Bankers Association. He previously was deputy chief of staff at the Small Business Administration. — The Asian American Hotel Owners Association has hired Dean Heyl as its new vice president of government affairs. Heyl most recently served as the Labor Department’s director of the Office of Public Liaison. — James Rubin has been appointed diplomatic counsellor to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s incoming Secretary General Mathias Cormann. Rubin is currently a partner and chair of Ballard Partners’ international policy and strategy practice. — John Kelly is now senior vice president for corporate affairs and communications at Roku. He most recently was head of global corporate affairs and social impact at Starbucks and is also a Microsoft alum. — Brian Montgomery, Hunter Kurtz, Michael Marshall, Keith Becker and Dror Oppenheimer have launched Gate House Strategies LLC, an advisory venture focused on FHA/Ginnie Mae/HUD/Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac compliance and support, per Playbook. They’re all former executives at those agencies. — Charisma Troiano is now deputy press secretary at the Energy Department, Playbook reports. She previously was communications director at Democracy Forward. — Tammy Kupperman Thorp is now director of public affairs for the CIA. She most recently was director of media relations for BAE Systems. | | | None. | | | ENACT SOCIAL PAC (Super PAC)
KULOS FOR MAYOR (Super PAC)
Maher Campaign Finance Reform PAC (PAC)
Tom Lord for City Council (Super PAC) | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO WEST WING PLAYBOOK: Add West Wing Playbook to keep up with the power players, latest policy developments and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing and across the highest levels of the Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | New Lobbying Registrations | | Blank Rome Government Relations: City And Borough Of Juneau
Covington & Burling LLP: Sl 2T, LLC ("Smartlabs")
Groom Law Group, Chartered: Nagdca
Hillcrest Strategies LLC (Fka Nicholas Flocken): Tomorrow.Io
Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC: Activate Global, Inc.
New Lantern, LLC: Steel Jupiter, Inc.
Ogilvy Government Relations: Avangrid, Inc.
Ogilvy Government Relations: Bmw Of North America, LLC
Ogilvy Government Relations: Jim Beam Brands Co.
Ogilvy Government Relations: Varian Medical Systems, Inc.
Patterson Earnhart Real Bird & Wilson LLP: Battle Mountain Band Of The Te-Moak Tribe Of Western Shoshone Indians Of Nevada
Patterson Earnhart Real Bird & Wilson LLP: Osage Minerals Council
Phoenix Global Organization Incorporated: Seven Seas Global Automotive Group LLC.
Rulon & White Governance Strategies: Government Blockchain Association
Williams And Jensen, Pllc: Colorado Nonprofit Development Center On Behalf Of One Chance To Grow Up | | | | A message from Emergent BioSolutions: At Emergent, we make things you never thought you’d need — until you do. Until you need to counteract an opioid overdose. Or need protection against smallpox, anthrax, cholera, or botulism ... and even in the fight against global pandemics like COVID-19. At Emergent, we take on public health challenges. For over 20 years, we have produced therapies and vaccines to help protect public health. And that’s why We Go. | | | | | New Lobbying Terminations | | None.
| | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
