|
Presented by Electronic Payments Coalition: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | | | With Daniel Lippman FARA FRIDAY: Welcome back to PI’s semi-regular roundup of recent FARA filings that caught our eye. The Iraqi Embassy has enlisted new lobbying firepower in Washington and re-upped its contract with another firm on its payroll amid escalating tensions in the region stemming from the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and, more recently, the U.S. retaliation campaign for a drone attack that killed three American troops last month. — The embassy has inked a yearlong contract with Squire Patton Boggs worth almost $800,000 to “provide policy advice and outreach concerning the political and commercial bilateral relationship” between the two countries, according to a copy of the contract filed with the Justice Department this week. — The contract is dated Feb. 2, meaning that it was signed prior to a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad this week that killed the commander of an Iran-backed militia who the Pentagon contends had been responsible for attacks on Americans in the region. The U.S. strike sparked pushback from Iraqi leaders, with a spokesperson for the prime minister warning that it would ratchet up pressure to expel the U.S.-led coalition working to counter ISIS there. — The firm’s Ed Newberry and Gassan Baloul, former diplomat Paul Jones, former John Boehner aide David Schnittger and former Trent Lott aide Bret Boyles will work on the account, DOJ filings show. — The embassy in recent weeks has also retained Michael Sarafa, an attorney at the Michigan law firm Butzel Long, to help Iraq forge ties to Iraqi-American communities in Michigan and Illinois, the Iraqi-American business community and the members of Congress who represent those communities, according to DOJ filings. — It also renewed its contract with the lobbying and comms firm Cogent Strategies to drive and monitor media coverage and conduct media training for the embassy and ambassador, boost the embassy’s social media footprint, and conduct outreach to think tanks, documents filed this week show. As part of the yearlong extension, Cogent’s fees for the work will increase to $310,000, from $200,000. — Staying in the region, the Saudi Embassy also re-upped with one of its longtime lobbying firms, Hogan Lovell, renewing its $200,000-per-month agreement with the firm for another year. And the Future Investment Initiative Institute, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund’s think tank responsible for putting on so-called “Davos in the Desert” each year, has hired PR giant Fleishman-Hillard. The firm will provide FII with media relations services and help promote FII’s summit in Miami slated for later this month, per DOJ filings. TGIF and welcome to PI, where we’re curious which team you’re throwing in with for the contentious showdown everyone is talking about right now. Send lobbying tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on the platform formerly known as Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.
| | | | CONGRESS OVERDRIVE: Since day one, POLITICO has been laser-focused on Capitol Hill, serving up the juiciest Congress coverage. Now, we’re upping our game to ensure you’re up to speed and in the know on every tasty morsel and newsy nugget from inside the Capitol Dome, around the clock. Wake up, read Playbook AM, get up to speed at midday with our Playbook PM halftime report, and fuel your nightly conversations with Inside Congress in the evening. Plus, never miss a beat with buzzy, real-time updates throughout the day via our Inside Congress Live feature. Learn more and subscribe here. | | | | | MORE NEW (DOMESTIC) BUSINESS: Identity verification service CLEAR has hired Tiber Creek Group to lobby on appropriations bills and issues related to CLEAR’s program allowing airline passengers to skip to the front of the line at TSA checkpoints. — The hire comes amid a skirmish with travel security rival Idemia for control of the airport security screening market and follows several bad headlines for CLEAR last year regarding a series of security breaches. CLEAR also retains Forbes Tate Partners, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and Bluff Point Strategies. — And GOP lobbying firm CGCN Group registered this week to lobby on behalf of Military Backpay LLC, an organization leading class action lawsuits against various branches of the U.S. military on behalf of service members who were forced into early retirement, discharged or dropped from active status for refusing to get the Covid vaccine. — Sam Geduldig, Tim Pataki, John Stipicevic and Martha Miller began working for the group at the beginning of this year to “ensure appropriate repayment for military personnel terminated for COVID related reasons,” according to a newly filed disclosure. SINEMA’S SHIFT ON PRIVATE PRISONS: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema(I-Ariz.), who was one of the principal negotiators of the border deal that collapsed this week, received tens of thousands of dollars from the private prison industry, which likely would have benefited from the legislation, Daniel reports. — The bill would have funded an increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention capacity from 34,000 beds to 50,000. The private prison industry most likely would have been used to help meet that capacity, given that 90 percent of ICE detainees last July were held in privately run facilities, according to an ACLU analysis. — Since 2018, Sinema’s campaign and her leadership PAC have received $36,000 from PACs and employees of for-profit prison companies CoreCivic and Management and Training Corporation, according to FEC records, including a total of $8,000 from CoreCivic's PAC in the second and fourth quarters of last year. In the 2022 cycle, before leaving the Democratic Party, she was the top Democratic recipient of donations from for-profit prison companies, according to OpenSecrets. — But before getting elected to the Senate, Sinema in 2017 voted for a House amendment to prohibit the federal government from using private companies to detain immigrants. — Five years later, she introduced a border security amendment that, among other things, would have provided more than $1 billion to increase ICE detention capacity (without prohibiting the agency from using private prisons) and $425 million for “alternatives to detention,” which are often run by private industry. — CoreCivic has reportedly looked into profiting from such alternatives and has lobbied Congress on the issue, but a company spokesperson told PI that "CoreCivic does not lobby on any policies, regulations or legislation that impact the basis for or duration of an individual’s detention." — At the start of his administration, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that phased out DOJ’s use of private facilities to detain individuals, but the order did not apply to ICE. A Sinema spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment. KLEIN/JOHNSON GROUP ACQUIRES PERRY BAYLISS: Klein/Johnson Group, the lobbying firm led by former Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) aide Izzy Klein and former John Cornyn (R-Texas) aide Matt Johnson, has acquired Perry Bayliss Government Relations, the firms announced today. — Steve Perry and Kim Bayliss will become principals at Klein/Johnson Group and will bring most of their clients over to the new firm, while allowing their new firm to “go levels deeper in tech, telecom and media than most people can,” Klein said in an interview. “Their depth of experience and networks in that world are second to none,” he added. — Klein, who said he’s known Perry and Bayliss for decades, told PI that the nascent union first started to come about over coffee a while back. “They were kind of thinking about some synergy and how to partner up with another similarly minded boutique bipartisan team,” he said. “And I think after talking to them, and to Matt and to our team … the clients and their expertise and the cultures just all aligned really well.” PROBING THE FARA PROBERS: House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) launched an investigation Thursday into the Justice Department’s track record of FARA enforcement — or lack thereof. In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Comer specifically took issue with DOJ for failing to enforce the department’s own demands that the U.S. digital arm of the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera register as a foreign agent, and for seemingly ignoring calls to require that the social media platform TikTok register under the statute. — Comer called on Garland to turn over troves of documents related to DOJ’s decision-making process on FARA enforcement, communications with the State Department related to Al Jazeera’s FARA obligations in the context of the Abraham Accords, and the details about the status of any FARA investigations and outreach to TikTok and Al Jazeera.
| | | | A message from Electronic Payments Coalition: ROSES ARE RED. VIOLETS ARE BLUE. CREDIT CARDS PROTECT OUR DATA AND GIVE YOU REWARDS TOO! Small businesses LOVE their credit cards because they provide a safe and convenient option to make purchases and provide valuable rewards. Doubling down on failed card mandates would force small businesses to give up the benefits they love, all to pad the pockets of corporate mega-stores. Congress: Oppose the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Bill. Click HERE to learn more. | | | | | — Markham, the strategic event management and production firm, has promoted Molly Buford, David Cusack, Maria Franzoi, Matt Giobbi and Patricia Park to partners and promoted three others to vice presidents: Essam Abozid for operations and innovation, Lauren Barry for creative and design, and Marissa “MJ” Johnson for people and culture. — Felicity Slater has joined Hintze Law PLLC’s team of AI, privacy and cybersecurity attorneys as an associate. She previously was a policy fellow at the Future of Privacy Forum. — AE Industrial Partners has promoted Chris Emerson to senior partner. He was previously an operating partner. — Christina Martin Kenny will be director of fundraising at Public Wise. She previously was director of development at She’s the First. — Alan Calderon is joining Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) office as deputy press secretary. He was most recently a communications associate at Boundary Stone Partners.
| | Military Accountability Victory Fund (Hamilton for Congress, Inc., Committee to Elect Nate Cain, Commander Jay Furman for Congress, Mara Macie for Congress, Committee to Elect Chris Coulombe to Congress, Matt Shoemaker for Congress)
| | | | A message from Electronic Payments Coalition:   | | | | | Ardelyx, Inc. Political Action Committee (ARDX PAC) (PAC) Pursuit PAC (PAC)
| | | | A message from Electronic Payments Coalition: CONGRESS: IT’S TIME TO DUMP THE DURBIN-MARSHALL CREDIT CARD BILL: Congress has a toxic relationship with card routing mandates. Despite over a decade of research showing that similar mandates for debit cards were a disaster for consumers, small businesses, and small financial institutions, corporate mega-stores are back and promising this time things will be “different.” But the truth is that the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Bill is a sweetheart giveaway to mega-corporations like Walmart and Target, while eliminating credit card rewards, weakening fraud protections, and reducing access to credit for low-income Americans. Congress: This Valentine’s Day, it’s time to break up with the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Bill and protect the value and security of America’s payments system. Click HERE to learn more. | | | | | New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS | | Barnes & Thornburg, LLP: Asi Ne Healthcare Services Cgcn Group, LLC: Military Backpay LLC G2G Consulting: Humacyte Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, P.C.: Liberty Partners Group Holland & Knight LLP: Balcony Technology Group, Inc. Holland & Knight LLP: Maxar Space LLC Lne Group: City Seven Hills Lne Group: Future Plans Tarplin, Downs & Young, LLC: Lantheus Tiber Creek Group: Secure Identity, LLC (Dba Clear) Todd Strategy Group: Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. Venable LLP: It's Electric Inc. Waxman Strategies: Captura Corp.
| | New Lobbying Terminations | | Continental Strategy, LLC: Tether Operations Limited Husch Blackwell, LLP: Arj Infusion Services, Inc. Husch Blackwell, LLP: Micro Mini Systems, Inc. Husch Blackwell, LLP: Nebraska Investment Finance Authority Venable LLP: Rare Element Resources Inc. Westmoreland160, LLC: Parry Labs, LLC
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S GOVERNORS SUMMIT: Join POLITICO on Feb. 22 to dive into how Governors are wielding immense power. While Washington remains gridlocked, governors are at the center of landmark decisions in AI and tech, economic development, infrastructure, housing, reproductive health and energy. How are they setting the stage for the future of American politics, policies and priorities? How are they confronting major challenges? Explore these questions and more at the 2024 Governors Summit. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
