| | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | With Daniel Lippman FTX HIRES CONAWAY: The former top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee has signed another cryptocurrency client, trading platform FTX , while the crypto exchange continues to add lobbyists with ties to its preferred federal regulator, the CFTC, or the Ag Committee, which oversees it. — FTX has brought on the Conaway Graves Group's Mike Conaway, Scott Graves and Matt Valesko , according to a lobbying disclosure filed today. They'll lobby for FTX on congressional and executive branch issues "related to the formation of orderly digital asset markets," according to the filing. — The Conaway Graves Group is the second outside firm to register to lobby for FTX this month and the fourth to do so this year. FTX also registered its first in-house lobbyist two weeks ago, as readers might recall. The flurry of hires came just as Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) were putting the finishing touches on Congress' first major cryptocurrency proposal, which would treat most digital assets as commodities, which fall under the CFTC's purview, rather than securities, which is the domain of the SEC, the regulator the industry views as more hostile. — FTX's lobbying roster now includes Conaway, the former House Ag chair; Graves, who served as Conaway's chief of staff and the committee's staff director; and Charlie Thornton, a former chief of staff and chief operating officer at CFTC. — Meanwhile Conaway, who retired from Congress in 2021 and registered to lobby for the first time this year, has racked up a client list featuring several players in the crypto policy space. He and his firm also lobby for the crypto trade group Association for Digital Asset Markets and are a subcontractor to Williams and Jensen on behalf of the crypto payments company Ripple Labs, which has been locked in a legal battle with the SEC. Happy Friday and welcome to PI. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.
| | | | DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | MORE NEW BUSINESS: Mercari, the Japanese e-commerce site, has hired Invariant to lobby on privacy and consumer tax reporting. The online marketplace is part of a coalition of similar sites that is calling on lawmakers to increase the threshold for online sellers that would trigger tax reporting requirements thanks to legislation Congress passed last year. — That threshold was lowered significantly as part of a Covid relief package last year, and the marketplaces argue the new rules can create an undue burden on even casual sellers, and that asking users for their Social Security numbers for tax reporting purposes could scare sellers away from the platforms. — Hikvision USA, the U.S. subsidiary of the Chinese video surveillance company accused of helping the communist government monitor Muslim minorities, has hired Drew Willison, a former chief of staff to the late Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid as it seeks to overturn a ban on purchases of its products. Willison also previously served as the Senate sergeant at arms. — The company, which has denied allegations that it helped facilitate human rights abuses, has faced a number of U.S. bans and restrictions on the purchase of its products. And the Financial Times reported in May that the Biden administration is weighing "hard-hitting sanctions" on the firm. — Hikvision already retains a team of lobbyists at Mercury Public Affairs that includes former Sen. David Vitter, former Rep. Toby Moffett and former Treasury sanctions official Peter Kucik. Former Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer also registered to represent the company last year but backed away from the account after backlash. DEMS ASK FOR PROBE OF DATA COLLECTION AHEAD OF ABORTION RULING: Four Democratic lawmakers called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, alleging the companies engage in unfair and deceptive practices by enabling the collection and sale of mobile-phone users' personal information," The Wall Street Journal's Patience Haggin reports. — "Apple and Google 'knowingly facilitated these harmful practices by building advertising-specific tracking IDs into their mobile operating systems,' the lawmakers wrote in a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan sent on Friday. Both companies have recently taken steps to limit the collection of user data through these mobile-ad identifiers—a string of numbers and letters built into iOS and Android, the respective mobile operating systems of Apple and Google." — "'Until recently, however, Apple enabled this tracking ID by default and required consumers to dig through confusing phone settings to turn it off. Google still enables this tracking identifier by default, and until recently did not even provide consumers with an opt-out,' said the letter, which was signed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.); Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.); Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.); and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D., Calif.). 'These identifiers have fueled the unregulated data broker market by creating a single piece of information linked to a device that data brokers and their customers can use to link to other data about consumers.'" — "These identifiers are ostensibly anonymous, they wrote, but can be easily traced back to the individuals who own the phones associated with them." Wyden's office told the Journal this morning that the lawmakers' urgency came from the potential repeal of Roe v. Wade, which came hours later. — "'Prosecutors in states where abortion becomes illegal will soon be able to obtain warrants for location information about anyone who has visited an abortion provider,' the lawmakers wrote in their letter. 'Private actors will also be incentivized by state bounty laws to hunt down women who have obtained or are seeking an abortion by accessing location information' through data brokers, they wrote."
| | | | 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. | | | | | DEMS MOBILIZE TO CAPITALIZE ON ABORTION RULING: "Top Democratic campaign committees are launching a national volunteer organizing effort in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, steering rank-and-file Democrats' reaction to the opinion into battleground states," POLITICO's Elena Schneider reports. — "The trio of committees — the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — are aiming to channel Democratic activism into the coordinated campaigns for candidates in competitive races across the country by launching a website as an online hub for organizing efforts. The site will make it easier for voters to volunteer." — "In the states, Democrats plan to hold 'weeks of action,' organizing volunteers through canvassing, phone banking and text banking. The details of this field organizing effort were shared first with POLITICO. The website — and subsequent organizing actions yet to be launched — are part of a broader push by Democrats to channel backlash from supporters of abortion rights against the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade, which rolled back the half-century and returned full control over abortion policy to the states. Backing for abortion rights is at an all-time high, and Democrats hope to harness that fury into electoral engagement, especially among their flagging base." FLYING IN: As chief executives from tech giantsblitzed Washington this month to blunt momentum for a pair of antitrust measures, "leaders of smaller tech companies are running some counterprogramming," Morning Tech reports. "The chief executives of Kelkoo Group and Proton — two significantly smaller competitors to Google — are on Capitol Hill this week holding meetings with lawmakers on the fence about S. 2992, legislation that would bar large tech platforms from favoring their own products over those of their competitors." — Kelkoo CEO Richard Stables told MT he's held meetings with some of the senators who've raised concerns about the bill, including the offices of Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). Proton CEO Andy Yen , meanwhile, met Thursday with the leaders of the antitrust push in the House, Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.).
| | | — Amanda Leese is now a partner in the business law practice group at Quarles & Brady. She previously was at Greenberg Traurig and is a Jeanne Shaheen and Clinton Foundation alum. — Vanessa Ambrosini is now director of regional media and rapid response at Stand Together. She most recently was senior communications adviser for Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and is a Trump White House and Commerce Department alum. — David Spirk, former DoD chief data officer, is now an adviser at both Pallas Advisors and Calypso AI. — Insight Partners has created a government advisory board including former Pentagon chief Ash Carter; Jack Shanahan, DoD's former head of AI; Will Roper, former Air Force acquisition boss; and retired Gen. Joseph Votel, former head of Central and Special Operations commands. — Lloyd Whitman is the new senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoTech Center. He was previously assistant to the director for science policy and planning at the National Science Foundation. — Pat McAdaragh was elected chairman of the board of directors at NCTA – The Internet and Television Association . He is also the president and CEO of Midco. — The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has hired Annika Olson as political and legislative representative. She previously served as assistant director of policy research at the University of Texas at Austin. — John Goetz is joining Ballard Health as vice president of community and government relations. He was most recently senior vice president at Bridge Public Affairs.
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