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Presented by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | |  | | By Megan R. Wilson | | | With help from Marcia Brown, Hailey Fuchs and Daniel Lippman FARM BILL LOBBYING GOES INTO OVERDRIVE — Lobbyists are blanketing Capitol Hill as the Sept. 30 deadline to reauthorize the farm bill approaches. — The sprawling legislation, reauthorized by Congress every five years, governs federal agricultural and food programs. More than 70 companies and groups have hired new lobbying firms to work on farm bill issues this year, according to forms tallied by your Influence author. — Beer giant Molson Coors is among the latest to bring on K Street help, hiring Resolution Public Affairs, the firm founded by Heather McHugh, a prominent former aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). — In addition, a number of organizations have members coming to Washington, including the National Confectioners Association, which is having a fly-in this week. The event hosts 100 candy executives who have 70 meetings scheduled with House and Senate offices. — Candymakers are focused on reforming the sugar program, a longtime goal of the industry. Candy companies argue that current policy — which includes a limit on the supply of refined sugar in the U.S. market — makes all food including treats like chocolate and candy more expensive to manufacture. — Organizations including the National Pork Producers Council and the National Farmers Union, and the International Fresh Produce Association had fly-ins over the last week that featured meetings on Capitol Hill and events to court policymakers, including Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and House Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.). “With the farm bill expiration on our doorstep, everyone who cares about that legislation and potentially making changes to it have been engaging on Capitol Hill and in the administration to advocate for their priorities,” said T.A. Hawks, a partner at Monument Advocacy and former staff director for the Senate Agriculture Committee. His clients include Clif Bar & Company, Feeding America, the North American Blueberry Council and Chobani. — More than 700 interests have listed lobbying on the sprawling legislation this year, with advocates attempting to influence an array of issues, including sustainability and climate policies, crop insurance, alternative meat products and the SNAP program for low-income households. — However, like much of Congress’ policy agenda, partisan battles threaten the farm bill’s passage. POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill scooped some deets this morning about the Senate Democrats’ strategy to push back on Republicans as the two sides battle over the fate of nearly $20 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funds in the bill — and she lays out the push and pull between the two parties. Happy Monday and welcome to PI. My name is Megan Wilson, and I cover lobbying and influence on POLITICO’s health care team. I’m filling in for Caitlin today, but looking for health advocacy tips and gossip every day — don’t hesitate to reach out: mwilson@politico.com.
| | A message from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network: Congress: Support the highest possible increases for cancer research funding at the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute to make time. Literally. More than 1.9 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in 2023 alone. But by investing in the research of today, you’re helping prevent, detect, and treat many of the cancers of tomorrow, creating countless moments for patients and their loved ones in the process. Fight Cancer. Make Time. | | | FIRST IN INFLUENCE: TIKTOK’S NEWEST LOBBYIST — Tech lobbyist Mike Dabbs has joined TikTok as the head of e-commerce public policy for the Americas, the company told POLITICO. — The social media company launched its own e-commerce platform, TikTok Shop, that gives brands and influencers the ability to sell things directly to users within the app. — Dabbs previously led the government affairs team for the Americas at eBay. Before that, he led the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Federal Communications Commission under former Chair Tom Wheeler. TECH POLICY VETERANS HANG A SHINGLE ON K STREET — Nu Wexler, a former comms pro for Google and Facebook, and ex-senior adviser to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Caitlin Legacki, have launched their own comms shop: Four Corners Public Affairs, POLITICO’s Rebecca Kern reports. — Wexler comes from public affairs firm Seven Letter. Prior to the Commerce Department, Legacki was a spokesperson for House Majority PAC, a super PAC that supports House Democrats. — They’re looking to build on the fever surrounding generative AI and hoping to be a resource for companies, startups and progressive advocacy organizations that need help communicating with Capitol Hill. — “One of the value-adds we can offer is being an outpost for them, so that they don’t feel the need to build out a big D.C. presence,” Legacki said. — The backstory: Wexler and Legacki first met working as Democratic House staffers in 2010 and became friends while bonding over North Carolina basketball. The firm’s name, Four Corners, comes from the famous play from UNC basketball coach Dean Smith. CANDIDATE SECURITY SPENDING SKYROCKETS — “Candidates running for House and Senate offices increased campaign spending on security by more than 500 percent between the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms,” write the Washington Post’s Greg Morton, Marianna Sotomayor and Camila DeChalus. — The Washington Post analysis of FEC records shows the “steep increases came as changes in federal campaign finance rules made it easier to spend campaign dollars on security, a recognition of the nation’s changing threat outlook for elected officials.” — “Spending by House and Senate candidates rose from $1.3 million to nearly $8 million in that time, the analysis found. The Post also found that House members have spent more of the annual governmental allowance they are given to fund their offices on security, with such spending rising from about $675,000 in 2020 to $1.2 million in 2022.” — “But even as significant changes have been made to facilitate that increased spending, lawmakers say more has to be done to help protect themselves and their staff from a dramatic rise in daily threats.” — “‘We’re asking them to come in and do a difficult job already,’ said Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who increased security spending to protect staff in his district office by almost $2,000 when lawmakers saw an increase in their funding allocation. ‘They’re dealing with somewhat of a stressful environment already, and then when their physical safety is threatened, you know, you need to make sure you’re taking care of your folks.’” ENGINEERS FLY IN TO BUILD SUPPORT FOR TAX TWEAKS — The American Council of Engineering Companies is hosting more than 100 of its members in Washington this month, where they’ll be lobbying members of Congress to tweak how companies are able to write off research and development expenses. — Recent changes to tax laws mandate firms to amortize R&D expenses over five years, rather than writing them off in the year they were incurred. The group argues the change makes it harder for its members “to innovate and compete on projects like cleaner air and water, safer roads, buildings and bridges, and energy efficiency.”
| | | | A message from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network:   | | | | | Narrative Strategies poached David Pasch away from Targeted Victory to serve as managing director at the public affairs firm. His resume also includes working as the digital director at the Health and Human Services Department and serving as the communications director for former Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.). The firm also hired Keenan Doheny as senior manager and Drew Dacey as strategic communications associate. Doheny comes from Edelman’s U.S. crisis and risk team. — Jay Bhargava has been named vice president of public affairs at Powell Tate. Prior to that, he was a spokesperson for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee under Chair Gary Peters (D-Mich.). — Abhi Rahman has become the national communications director for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. He most recently was senior director for strategy at Penta Group and is a Beto O’Rourke, Texas Democratic Party and Stacey Abrams alum. — Tara Murray has been named executive director of the National Urban League’s Washington bureau and senior vice president for policy and advocacy. She previously was special assistant to President Joe Biden and deputy director in the White House Office of Public Engagement.
| | A message from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network: Cancer takes away many things, but the most devastating is time. And while policies and federal research investment have helped avert 3.8 million cancer deaths since 1991, the fight against the country’s second most common cause of death is far from over. With over 609,000 deaths and 1.9 million diagnoses expected in 2023, there is still work to do in the fight against cancer. And that is where you come in.
When Congress prioritizes ending cancer as we know it, you literally make time for patients, loved ones, caregivers, and everybody else affected by 200 diseases known as cancer. Supporting the highest possible funding increases for cancer research lengthens the lives of cancer patients. By investing in the research of today, you’re helping prevent, detect, and treat many of the cancers of tomorrow, creating countless moments for cancer patients and their loved ones in the process.
Fight Cancer. Make Time. | | | | | | PA RI Victory Fund (Sheldon Whitehouse, Bob Casey, Oceans PAC, Keystone America PAC, Pennsylvania Democratic Party, Rhode Island Democratic State Committee)
| | Willamette Valley PAC (Leadership PAC: Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.)) Connecticut Voter Project (Super PAC)
| | | | JOIN US ON 9/20 FOR A TALK ON TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE BILLING: Bipartisan legislation in the House and Senate would align costs for services across hospitals and doctors’ offices and reduce out-of-pocket spending that could potentially save the federal government billions of dollars. Can this legislation survive a polarized Congress? Join POLITICO on Sept. 20 to explore this and whether site-neutral payments and billing transparency policies could help ease health care costs. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS | | | Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, LLP: Ferrovial Vertiports US LLC NVG, LLC: Gerontological Society Of America Horizons Global Solutions LLC: Clearspeed The Peterson Group Inc: Bayer U.S. LLC The Duberstein Group Inc.: River Birch, LLC The Madison Group: Objective Lab On Behalf Of Synchrony Financial Grassroots Political Consulting LLC: Sherpa 6, Inc. Keller Partners & Company: City Of Everett CFM Strategic Communications (Conkling Fiskum & Mccormick): La Center CFM Strategic Communications (Conkling Fiskum & Mccormick): Cowlitz Public Utility District Capitol Tax Partners, LLP: Summit Ridge Energy LLC Resolute-DC: Rivada Systems Harper Downing: Humanetics Corporation Hill East Group, LLC: Merlin International, Inc. Gephardt Group Government Affairs: Forta Mr. Daniel Smith: Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Resolution Public Affairs, LLC: Molson Coors Beverage Company USa Federal Hall Policy Advisors, LLC: Banco Azteca, Sa
| | New Lobbying Terminations | | Stono Public Affairs: Department Of Military & Veterans Affairs, State Of New Jersey Trustwave Government Solutions: Trustwave Government Solutions
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