Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Fintech trade group taps chief executive — Labor and greens coalition, Chipotle lobby up — Manufacturing Leadership Council adds first cyber company

Presented by HCA Healthcare: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street.
Jul 27, 2021 View in browser
 
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By Caitlin Oprysko

Presented by

HCA Healthcare

With Daniel Lippman

INVARIANT'S LEE TO LEAD FINTECH LOBBYING GROUP: The Financial Technology Association has tapped Penny Lee to become the newly formed lobbying group's first chief executive. Lee most recently led the public affairs practice group at Invariant, and before that worked for the tech incubator 1776, Venn Strategies and former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.

— FTA launched back in March as a means to give fintechs even more of a footprint in the nation's capital with Washington eyeing a crackdown on the quickly growing and mostly unregulated industry. The trade group quickly expanded to 15 members including industry leaders offering a range of different services such as Betterment, Plaid, Wise, Afterpay, Klarna, Truework, and Nium, among others. The group has also assembled an advisory board that includes two former CFTC chairs, Timothy Massad and J. Christopher Giancarlo, former Rep. Ben McAdams and Richard Berner, the first director of the Office of Financial Research during the Obama administration.

— In an interview, Lee said that her aim as head of FTA will include educating lawmakers who have begun to sour on the idea of fintech startups democratizing the world of finance for underserved communities. Lee told PI that she wants the industry to show that it is growing responsibly, and not in a way that is "running away from the regulations," while helping regulators understand what kind of services its members offer, fending off "punitive regulatory frameworks from lack of knowledge." That's included conversations with policymakers to address regulations currently on the books "that don't necessarily understand or capture … what these companies are doing," and modernizing those frameworks, whether that be for online payments, lending, capital markets, and AI and machine learning.

— FTA's pace of growth since its launch shows recognition on the part of fintechs that "Washington, or other governing bodies, might not understand and so we need this trade association to be able to lift our voice, frame the narrative, work with the regulatory bodies so they understand … what we are doing from a responsible perspective and not from a harmful perspective."

Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Shoot me your K Street tips, gossip and musings: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

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NEW BUSINESS: BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of major labor and environmental groups working to ensure that clean energy investments don't come at the expense of quality jobs, hired Boundary Stone Partners back in April to lobby on labor standards for environmental policies as congressional negotiators hashed out an infrastructure framework, new disclosure filings show. Mike Carr, who served as principal deputy assistant secretary for the Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiencyand Renewable Energy during the Obama administration, and Yogin Kothari, a former Senate Homeland Security staffer and a former lobbyist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, will lobby on the account for Boundary Stone.

Chipotle has registered its first in-house lobbyist. Ryan Guthrie, a former longtime lobbyist for Coca-Cola , will represent the fast-casual burrito bowl purveyor on a range of issues including the farm bill reauthorization, food safety, labor, workplace, diversity, sustainability, transportation and tax issues. The company currently only retains one outside lobbying firm, DLA Piper, whom it's paid $240,000 since last March.

NAM'S MANUFACTURING LEADERSHIP COUNCIL ADDS FIRST CYBER COMPANY: The Manufacturing Leadership Council, a division of the National Association of Manufacturers, announced that Dragos will be the first industrial cybersecurity company to become a member. Dragos, which specializes in industrial control systems and operational technology environments, will lend its expertise to other members when it comes to "monitoring, OT asset visibility and vulnerability management and threat analytics," according to the trade group.

— "The manufacturing leaders of today require the expertise of companies like Dragos to better understand and address the growth and exposure to cyberthreats," Dragos vice president of marketing Peter Vescuso said in a statement, adding that his company will assist members in better understanding "the need for better ICS/OT cybersecurity as manufacturing systems are increasingly connected."

WARREN CALLS LACK OF CRYPTO RULES A 'GROWING THREAT': Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) this morning urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to task the government's financial regulators with developing a "coordinated and cohesive regulatory strategy" on cryptocurrencies, an issue she painted as an increasingly urgent concern.

— In a letter asking the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which Yellen chairs, to act, the senator wrote that "'cryptocurrencies currently touch or can ripple through nearly every corner of the financial system,' with more than 2,000 digital currencies in circulation and a market value that could exceed $2 trillion," POLITICO's Kellie Mejdrich reports. Warren "cited specific concerns with so-called stablecoins, decentralized finance, exposure to hedge funds and risk to banks," and added that "as the demand for cryptocurrencies continues to grow and these assets become more embedded in our financial system, consumers, the environment, and our financial system are under growing threats."

 

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FROM 3M TO GM: General Motors has hired away one of 3M's top lobbyists, Omar Vargas. Vargas will be the automaker's vice president and head of global policy as the company pursues an all-electric fleet by 2035, executive vice president for global public policy and general counsel Craig Glidden said in a statement. Vargas, a former DOJ official in the George W. Bush administration, spent a decade in government relations at PepsiCo and Praxair (now Linde) before joining 3M in 2017, becoming chief government affairs officer in April.

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: "Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is injecting huge sums into some crucial 2022 midterm contests — and drawing fire from Republicans eager to tie their rivals to the GOP's Silicon Valley bogeymen," Axios' Lachlan Markay reports. Thiel's "brand of nationalist conservatism mimics the party's Trump-era shift. Yet the fortune he's using to bankroll like-minded candidates derives from an industry reviled by much of that base. This dichotomy has produced at least one notable example this year of a candidate publicly attacking Thiel just months after trying to arrange a sit-down with him."

— "Thiel's $10 million infusion into a super PAC supporting the Ohio Senate bid by 'Hillbilly Elegy' author J.D. Vance represented his first major foray into the 2022 cycle" while drawing criticism from one of Vance's primary opponents, former state treasurer Josh Mandel. Mandel "hit Vance for positioning himself against Big Tech while he has 'a guy who is on the board of Facebook as his biggest political funder.' Mandel declined to name Thiel. He also didn't mention the multiple overtures he himself made to Thiel early in the campaign. Text messages reviewed by Axios show Mandel flagged his candidacy announcement for Thiel and followed up to request meetings with him in February and March. Thiel does not appear to have responded."

 

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Jobs Report

Jeff Carroll is joining Capitol Counsel as a partner. He most recently served as staff director on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and before that worked for more than a decade as Chair Frank Pallone's (D-N.J.) chief of staff.

Smith Dawson & Andrews has hired Kierstin Stradford as a senior associate. She was most recently a senior legislative assistant to Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) and previously served as legislative assistant in the office of his predecessor, the late Rep. Elijah Cummings.

Bethany Torstenson is joining Harris Media LLC as a senior account executive. She previously was deputy campaign manager for Amanda Makki's Florida congressional bid.

New Joint Fundraisers

None.

New PACs

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New Lobbying Registrations

Boundary Stone Partners: Bluegreen Alliance
Boundary Stone Partners: Corning Incorporated
Boundary Stone Partners: Levelten
Boundary Stone Partners: Terawatt Infrastructure Inc.
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc: Chipotle Mexican Grill
David Turch & Assoc.: Htl Advantage
Emc Strategy Group, LLC: City Of Charlotte
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (Formerly Known As Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP): Geneoscopy, Inc.
Fti Government Affairs: Flixbus Inc
Hbw Resources: Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil And Gas Association
Helix Opco, LLC: Helix Opco, LLC
Lj Strategies LLC: Odawi Law Pllc On Behalf Of Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
Randstad North America: Randstad North America
Rubin, Turnbull & Associates: Aecom
Rubin, Turnbull & Associates: City Of North Miami Beach
Rubin, Turnbull & Associates: City Of Sunrise
Rubin, Turnbull & Associates: Embraer
Rubin, Turnbull & Associates: Feeding South Florida
Rubin, Turnbull & Associates: Indian Creek Village
Rubin, Turnbull & Associates: North Bay Village
Rubin, Turnbull & Associates: Town Of Surfside
Smith Advocacy Group, LLC: The Aleut Corporation
Tai Ginsberg & Associates, LLC: Blank Rome Government Relations, On Behalf Of Canadian National Railway
Winn Strategies, LLC: Twinlogic Strategies Obo Sheppard,Mullin,Richter&Mullin Obo Niagara Bottling,LLC

New Lobbying Terminations

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (Formerly Known As Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP): Global Antibiotic Research And Development Partnership (Gardp)
John Ladd & Associates, Inc.: Old North State Medical Society
Park Strategies, LLC: Brookfield Financial Properties, LLC
Prism Group: Independent Restaurant Coalition
Tai Ginsberg & Associates, LLC: Chambers, Conlon & Hartwell, LLC, On Behalf Of Canadian National Railway Company

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