FORMER TOP CANTWELL AIDE LOBBIES FOR TIKTOK: Rosemary Gutierrez, the former deputy chief of staff and acting legislative director for Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), is lobbying on behalf of TikTok as Cantwell has emerged as one of the leading Democratic Senate critics of the House’s anti-TikTok bill, Daniel reports. — Gutierrez left Cantwell’s office in August 2020 and joined Mehlman Consulting in June 2021, where she immediately began working on the TikTok account, according to LDA records. In the fourth quarter of last year, the firm had 12 lobbyists who were working for TikTok, including Gutierrez, with the firm getting paid $80,000 that quarter. — The firm reported working on “[i]ssues related to entertainment apps and digital platforms including privacy, content moderation, cyber security, protecting children, data protection and supporting communities,” and also was monitoring AI proposals. — Cantwell, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, on Monday indicated to POLITICO that she is not interested in supporting the House sell-or-ban legislation that the entire House is set to vote on tomorrow — instead favoring the GUARD Act, her bill that would allow the Commerce Department to regulate TikTok and other foreign apps but wouldn’t ban them fully. Gutierrez and the firm didn’t respond to requests for comment. Spokespeople for TikTok and Cantwell had no comment. LYNCH ADVOCACY FOR DJI PROMPTS FARA CONCERNS: “When a Chinese drone company came under U.S. government scrutiny over its alleged ties to China's military, the company turned to one of America's pre-eminent lawyers: Loretta Lynch, a former attorney general in the Obama administration,” Reuters’ Michael Martina reports. — “Lynch, who ran the U.S. Department of Justice from 2015 to 2017 and is now a partner at the Paul, Weiss law firm, wrote a letter to a senior Defense Department official last July on behalf of SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd, asking that her client be removed from a list of Chinese military companies.” — “Advocating for foreign clients is legal and U.S. law includes a public disclosure exemption for lawyers,” Martina writes, but Lynch’s letter, which was also signed by former top DOJ and White House lawyers, “is an example of what transparency advocates and some members of Congress — dozens of whom have supported bills to change rules — say are gaps in the law that allow lawyers and lobbyists, including former officials, to avoid disclosing their advocacy for companies possibly subject to U.S. sanctions.” — “The work by the onetime top U.S. law enforcement officer on behalf of a company the Department of Defense says poses ‘threats to national security’ comes as U.S. agencies warn about companies with links to China's Communist Party and as lawmakers push to tighten FARA's disclosure requirements.” — “Almost a dozen critics of FARA told Reuters the law's loopholes have allowed less transparency for other companies with alleged ties to China's military, including surveillance technology firm Hikvision and biotech firm WuXi AppTec.” (The latter’s membership in the Biotechnology Innovation Organization prompted similar concerns last week.) NOTABLE TERMINATION: Cornerstone Government Affairs has parted ways with Boeing after close to a decade and a half working for the aerospace giant, according to a termination filing. Cornerstone first registered to lobby for Boeing in 2010, and has reported being paid more than $3.2 million in lobbying fees since. — The split comes as Boeing faces pressure across Washington and a criminal investigation over the January incident in which a door blew off one of the planemaker’s 737 MAX jets midflight. But Boeing still has plenty of outside lobbying firepower to face the latest crisis, even if its in-house team features fresher faces. — The vast majority of the company’s outside firms, like Cornerstone, have worked for Boeing for years, and five of the 14 firms Boeing still has on retainer — the Gephardt Group, S-3 Group, Monument Advocacy, the Lugar Group and Stapleton & Associates — have worked on behalf of the aerospace giant for at least a decade, according to PI’s analysis of disclosures. FLYING IN: Stakeholders from the California and Nevada side of the Lake Tahoe Basin are in town this week to push for the extension of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act, sponsored by Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.). The group includes nearly two dozen local elected and tribal officials, business leaders and community leaders. — Dozens of members of the U.S. Footwear Manufacturers Association were also on the Hill today lobbying for legislation to lower the de minimis threshold for tariff exemptions and for investments to support research of military footwear to ensure troops have sufficient options that comply with the Berry Amendment, which restricts the use of federal funds for clothing, fabrics and other textiles “not grown, reprocessed, reused, or produced in the United States.” — “The Army lacks the resources — funding, facilities, and personnel — to ensure that the Berry Amendment footwear industrial base is keeping pace with new materials, manufacturing technologies and design,” argued Bill McCann, head of the lobbying firm SMI and executive director of USFMA. — The American Podiatric Medical Association is meeting this week as well to lobby on the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and ways to address the perennial threat of cuts to physician reimbursements, as well as student loan reforms for medical and dental residents, restrictions on marketing for Medicare Advantage plans, a technical fix to allow podiatrists to receive required opioid training and a measure to deem podiatrists as physician providers under Medicaid. — And 40 top student scientists are hitting the Hill to discuss the importance of STEM education. They’ll meet with Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), as well as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and staff from both Johnson’s office and the Senate Commerce Space and Science Subcommittee. AREA FED OFFICIAL HAS SEEN YOUR BASEL III ADS: “The Federal Reserve’s top lawyer on Monday said the response to regulators’ proposal to raise capital requirements on big banks is unlike anything he’s seen during his time at the central bank,” our Victoria Guida reports. — “‘I’ve been a regulator for 26 years, and the response to the universe of the proposal has been unique, shall we say,’ Fed General Counsel Mark Van Der Weide said at a conference hosted by the Institute of International Bankers. He cited ‘tons of negative comments’ that have come in on the proposal, known as Basel III endgame, alongside ‘a few positive comments, but not very many.’” — “He also pointed to extensive ad campaigns from industry groups ‘interrupting my NFL football watching, my University of Iowa women's basketball watching … and interrupting my eating of oatmeal and reading the Wall Street Journal in the morning.’” — “His comments are some of the most candid from an agency official about the intense pushback the proposal has received. … ‘You also might understand that if this rule does pass that kids will no longer get lollipops anymore,’ he added. ‘I don’t think that’s true either. I just wanna clear up some of those misconceptions.’” SPOTTED last night at the Capitol Hill Club for an event hosted by Americans for Small Business to introduce Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) as the new House Small Business Caucus co-chair, per a tipster: Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Del. James Moylan (R-Guam), Steve Abbott of Gusto, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, Alex Vogel of The Vogel Group and Fritz Brogan of Mission Group.
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