LONG HEADING BACK TO BGR: "Ryan Long, a senior health policy staffer for Speaker Kevin McCarthy, is rejoining top lobbying firm BGR Group," POLITICO's Megan Wilson reports. "Long, who is slated to start the new role next month, has spent most of his 25-year Washington career on Capitol Hill."
— "He joined McCarthy’s Republican leadership office in 2021 from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he'd served as its GOP staff director." — "During his stint at BGR Group from 2013 to 2018, his client roster included the leading drugmaker lobby — the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — insurer Centene, patient group Kidney Care Partners and AdvaMed, the industry group that represents medical device manufacturers. Before that, Long worked as chief health counsel on the House Energy and Commerce Committee." TECH GROUP ASKS DOJ FOR DEI ASSURANCE: Following the Supreme Court’s ruling this summer striking down affirmative action for colleges, the tech industry is urging the Biden administration to weigh in on corporate diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices — seen as newly vulnerable as part of a campaign on the right against corporations taking stances on social issues. — “In the face of a political attack on diversity efforts in the private sector, we urge the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to issue guidance to the private sector expressly affirming that corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in hiring remain protected,” the Chamber of Progress — which counts Meta, Apple, Amazon, Uber, Google and more among its partners — said in a letter today to DOJ civil rights chief Kristen Clarke and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. — The group pointed to a missive last month from more than a dozen Republican state attorneys general warning the heads of top corporations that they could face “serious legal consequences” as a result of corporate diversity efforts, which the officials argued is unlawful under the same basis as the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling. — “It is important that private employers be advised that the legal arguments underpinning the Republican attorneys general letter fall apart under scrutiny,” Jess Miers, the group’s legal advocacy counsel, added, noting that the court’s opinions in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC addressed only race-conscious admissions practices in higher education, and even then exempted military academies like West Point. — Miers also pointed to resources on the rulings DOJ issued to colleges in its aftermath, arguing that the department should issue similar guidance for the private sector, where the tech industry had been a vocal advocate for corporate diversity programs. “[T]he reality is that the threat of liability will have a chilling effect on companies’ readiness to develop diversity and inclusion initiatives, regardless of the benefit such practices have for a company’s bottom line,” Miers wrote. CFTC SCRAPS ELECTION BETTING BID: “Wall Street's top derivatives regulator has rejected a controversial bid to open up U.S. elections to the world of political gambling,” POLITICO’s Declan Harty reports. — “The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday said it has blocked a proposal by Kalshi Inc. to give investors, day traders and political junkies a new way to legally bet on which party will control Congress, following a more than yearlong lobbying blitz by the derivatives exchange startup.” — “In a statement, CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam said the agency found that Kalshi's plans would have constituted gaming and run afoul of the public interest. Behnam also said the contracts would have included activity — betting on elections — that is illegal in several states. The CFTC voted 3-1 to turn down Kalshi's plan, with Commissioner Caroline Pham sitting out the vote.” — “Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in an email that the company ‘fundamentally’ disagrees with the CFTC's decision.” The plan saw support from parties from former Obama White House economic adviser Jason Furman to Jeff Yass's Susquehanna International Group, among others, but even recently ran “into a wall of pushback from Capitol Hill … as lawmakers fret about the potential implications for U.S. elections.” KEEPING UP WITH THE KOCHS: ProPublica’s latest revelations on Supreme Court justices’ ties to deep-pocketed interests with issues before the court feature the Koch network. Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski unearthed Justice Clarence Thomas’ previously undisclosed participation in at least two Koch donor summits over the years, including attending a private dinner with donors in 2018. — “That puts Thomas in the extraordinary position of having served as a fundraising draw for a network that has brought cases before the Supreme Court, including one of the most closely watched of the upcoming term,” they write. A spokesperson for Stand Together denied that Thomas had been involved in any fundraising discussions and that his presence indicated anything nefarious. — Still, the revelation comes ahead of a term during which the court will hear a case that “could give the network a historic victory: limiting federal agencies’ power to issue regulations in areas ranging from the environment to labor rights to consumer protection. After shepherding the case to the court, Koch network staff attorneys are now asking the justices to overturn a decades-old precedent. (Thomas used to support the precedent but flipped his position in recent years.)”
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