| | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | Presented by Save Our Standards | PROGRAMMING NOTE: Influence won't publish from Friday, Dec. 24-Friday, Dec. 31. We'll be back on our normal schedule on Monday, Jan. 3. With Daniel Lippman ANOTHER 'MOM GROUP' TAPPED LOBBYIST WITH TIES TO HELP CHAIR: As Democratic lawmakers and caregiving advocates worked feverishly to win Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) support for keeping paid family and medical leave in the party's reconciliation bill, one advocacy group helping spearhead the effort turned to K Street for help, a newly filed lobbying disclosure shows. — In early October, the group MomsRising enlisted a team of lobbyists from The Raben Group that includes a former staffer on the Senate HELP Committee and a one-time aide to its now-chair, Patty Murray (D-Wash.), to make its case. — Compared to some of Washington's lobbying heavyweights, care advocates have had a relatively paltry lobbying presence in the capital, sticking mostly to grassroots advocacy or ad blitzes in courting Manchin, who was on the verge of nixing paid leave from the bill before announcing his opposition to the package as a whole last weekend. — One group, Paid Leave for the United States, or PL+US, registered its first lobbyists this year, hiring a former chief of staff to Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), a top House appropriator, and a former Murray aide. Disclosures show that through the end of September, the group had spent just $100,000 on lobbying. Another major player in the caregiving advocacy scene, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, reregistered to lobby at the federal level this year for the first time since 2015, and spent a little over $400,000 through the end of September. MORE NEW BUSINESS: Ferox Strategies has signed five new clients to close out 2021, in addition to registering to lobby for the National Retail Federation and five others in October and September. The firm, which added one of the few former aides on K Street to now-HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra this spring, signed Alexion Pharmaceuticals, the rare disease drugmaker that was acquired earlier this year by AstraZeneca. — U.S. Spanish-language TV juggernaut Univision Communications hired the firm to monitor legislative and regulatory issues concerning telecommunications and media ownership, and the firm also signed LKQ, an alternative and specialty auto parts provider, sporting goods company Equinox International and life sciences company Illumina. Good afternoon and welcome to the last PI of 2021. Endless thanks to those who sent me tips, leads and whatever other weird things I asked you all for over the last year. Here's to a happy and safe holiday for you and your loved ones, and to meeting even more of you in person in 2022. And in honor of Britney Spears winning her independence this year, here's an underrated Christmas bop from the princess of pop to close out 2021. 'Til next year, keep those lobbying tips coming: coprysko@politico.com . And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. | | A message from Save Our Standards: Technical standards like 5G and Wi-Fi have the power to transform industries, fuel the economy, and create high-quality jobs. But that only happens if owners of patents essential to standards honor their commitments to license all innovators to use those patents on fair and reasonable terms. A new draft Administration statement restores the balance vital to standards adoption and job creation. Support the Administration to promote American manufacturing and limit product bans on standard-essential patents. | | | COVID-BATTERED SECTORS SEE AN OPENING FOR HELP IN OMICRON: Some corners of the business world are ending 2021 much like they started it: Lobbying fiercely for government assistance to help their industries weather the crush of the Covid-19 pandemic, fueled now by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, POLITICO's Zachary Warmbrodt reports. "The Omicron surge is forcing pandemic-battered businesses to once again scale back and close their doors, energizing a lobbying push for billions of dollars of new aid for struggling employers and their workers." — "The question Congress will face when it returns in January is whether the latest Covid-19 wave justifies a new rescue beyond the $1 trillion of emergency small business assistance lawmakers have approved since March 2020." Now, "groups representing restaurants, gyms and other businesses have been warning for months that their members still need help because the earlier programs didn't meet their needs and economic headwinds have persisted, including rising costs and staffing shortages. They believe Omicron could be a wake-up call for Congress and lobbyists see a window of opportunity now that President Joe Biden's social spending and climate plan is in limbo." — "'If Congress finds it cannot focus on the Build Back Better Act, that creates an opening for them to look a little more local to their districts," said Sean Kennedy, the National Restaurant Association 's executive vice president for public affairs." Still, the effort faces political headwinds in that Omicron hasn't prompted the kind of government mandated shutdowns of last year, and resistance from Republicans — even those supportive of relief — to further federal spending. — "It would likely be aimed at specific industries if it gained traction, unlike the Paycheck Protection Program, which made forgivable loans available to a wide range of sectors. The small business lobbying coalition has splintered around the issue, with key groups such as the International Franchise Association instead focusing their efforts on the labor shortage and the vaccine mandate." INSIDE THE 'TRAUMATIZING' CULTURE AT PROGRESSIVE FIRM: Insider's Kayla Epstein has a look at what former staffers for progressive digital firm Basecamp Strategy described as "systemic exploitation" of young employees at the firm, led by a chief executive some suspect used the firm and the PAC he ran to enrich himself rather than support candidates. — "Founded in 2018 by CEO Mike Reid , the company trafficked in fevered, partisan pleas for dough. If you're a certain kind of political donor — a Democrat, a habitual giver, someone who's terrified of a second Trump presidency — these sorts of emails have probably landed in your inbox with irritating frequency. … But despite its roster of progressive clients and promises to save America, Basecamp Strategy, based in Washington, DC, was a highly exploitative workplace in which junior employees were pushed to work burnout hours and sometimes fired because they were perceived as disloyal to Reid, 13 former employees told Insider." — "Three former staffers described aspects of their experiences at Basecamp Strategy as 'traumatizing.' Two said the environment was so stressful that it triggered panic attacks. Staffers also described unease about Reid's political action committee, When Democrats Turn Out , which says it raises money from individual donors to help flip seats and back progressive candidates. Insider reported in November that 60% of the PAC's spending went to Basecamp Strategy. While a revolving fiscal door between a PAC and a fundraising firm is not illegal or even uncommon, former staffers who spoke with Insider said Reid was playing a different game: raising money to pay himself." | | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | CALLING OFF THE SEARCH: "Meta is bringing back Kevin Martin to lead its U.S. lobbying team, the company said Wednesday," according to POLITICO's Alexandra Levine. "Martin's move puts another Republican in charge of the sprawling policy operation. (Republican Joel Kaplan, at times a lightning rod for Democratic criticism, is the company's vice president of global public policy.)" — "It's a position he's returning to: Martin, previously a Republican FCC chair under President George W. Bush, had been put in charge of the company's policy work amid internal shuffling in 2018 during the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal." — "The Information first reported the news of Martin's latest appointment, which it said followed an exhaustive search for a Democrat to lead Meta's lobbying shop during the Biden administration and 117th Congress. Many Democrats have turned down that role, according to The Wall Street Journal. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the search had been called off and that Martin would formally fill the role." AT IT AGAIN: The man indicted by the Justice Department last month for allegedly running a pair of scam PACs during the 2016 election "continued to run another operation — including promises of a Trump Christmas card for contributions of at least $35 — using a different PAC shortly after his indictment and arrest in November," CNN's Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck report. — CNN's KFile found that Matthew Tunstall, who along with two others prosecutors say bilked unwitting donors of around $3.5 million through the committees, "used another PAC he created in 2019 — called Campaign to Support the President — to send more than 166,000 robocalls, according to data from an anti-robocall app, to solicit donations just last month." — Tunstall was arrested on Nov. 9, court filings show, and he was released to home confinement days later on a $50,000 unsecured bond. But his Campaign to Support the President PAC "ran 128,000 robocalls following his arrest on November 9, according to data reviewed by CNN's KFile from Aaron Foss, the founder of the anti-robocall app Nomorobo . The calls, which used spliced-together recordings of Trump's public statements, first started running on November 4 and continued until November 30, running more than 166,000 in total." | | | | A message from Save Our Standards:   | | | | | | — Lee Schroeder, Altice USA's executive vice president of government and community affairs and chief diversity officer, will be leaving the company next year. Executive vice president of communications Lisa Gonzalez Anselmo will take over the community affairs and chief diversity officer roles, and the company will look to appoint a new head of government affairs. — Disney has tapped Horacio Gutierrez as general counsel. Gutierrez was most recently Spotify's chief legal officer and global affairs head. | | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we've got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don't miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | | None. | | | Take Back CO-08 Republican Nominee Fund 2022 (PAC)
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Take Back TX-38 Republican Nominee Fund 2022 (PAC) | | New Lobbying Registrations | | Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: American Federation For Aging Research
Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Applied Research Associates, Inc.
Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Ou Medicine, Inc.
Ferox Strategies: Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Ferox Strategies: Equinox International Sac
Ferox Strategies: Univision Communications Inc.
The Raben Group: Momsrising | | New Lobbying Terminations | | Policy Development Group: Aliento | | A message from Save Our Standards: Support US Jobs. Stop SEP Abuse.
A new draft policy statement on standard-essential patents (SEPs) committed for licensing on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms was released jointly by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Department of Justice. The draft statement provides guidance on appropriate remedies in cases involving the use of these patents, and presents an approach to SEPs that strives to balance the interests of patent holders with the broad range of U.S. industries that use standards to protect the future of innovation.
Save Our Standards is a broad-based coalition working to end abusive practices in SEP licensing. We welcome the draft statement and support the Biden Administration for their leadership protecting U.S. competitiveness in charting out this balanced approach. Comments are being accepted through February 4. Support the Biden Administration to stop SEP abuse. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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