News: Who’s on the Hill this week

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Who’s on the Hill this week

Jun 15, 2022

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By Caitlin Oprysko

Presented by

With Megan Wilson and Daniel Lippman

FLYING IN: It seems you won't be able to go anywhere on the Hill this week without bumping into a fly-in. The Associated Builders and Contractors are kicking theirs off today, bringing hundreds of construction and business leaders to the Hill to warn against the Biden administration's pro-union labor agenda, which the industry says will exacerbate the existing labor shortage. They will also urge lawmakers to co-sponsor a bill that would prohibit mandated project labor agreements on federal and federally funded construction projects.

— The association has more than 85 meetings scheduled, and will hear from lawmakers like House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.)

— The Associated Equipment Distributors is bringing 50 owners and executives from leading equipment distributors to discuss supply chain issues, workforce challenges and implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure law. The group will also push for extending full expensing for new and used equipment purchases.

— They're slated to meet today with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), John Thune (R-S.D.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.,) and Reps. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.) and more.

— Patients with chronic and life-threatening illnesses will also be on the Hill today to push for half a dozen bills aimed at lowering health care costs and improving access. They're slated to meet with the offices of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas).

— More than 250 members of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition were on the Hill on Tuesday to ask members of Congress to fully fund the international affairs budget. They met with more than 100 members of Congress, including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.) Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Baldwin, and Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) and more.

— The National Grain and Feed Association is also hosting a fly-in this week to discuss farm bill priorities with lawmakers and raise awareness about ongoing rail service disruptions that are hitting farmers and grain shippers. Today, the trade group heard from Reps. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.), Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.), and Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.).

— Nonprofit members of the National Council of Nonprofits kicked off their fly-in today, which will focus on nonprofit organizations' monthslong push to reinstate the final quarter of the pandemic relief employee retention tax credit. They'll also lobby members and their staffs on bills to improve charitable-giving incentives and increase collaboration between the federal government and nonprofits. Among the offices they're scheduled to meet with are Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and McConnell.

— The United States Tour Operators Association is on the Hill today, as well, to emphasize the importance of domestic and international travel to the economy, and discuss how the travel industry continues to navigate the pandemic. (The Biden administration ticked off one major outstanding priority for the industry last week.) They'll meet with a combination of staff and lawmakers, including from the offices of Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Bacon.

— The Health Industry Distributors Association is also holding a fly-in this week with advocates for distribution companies. The group will honor Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) on Thursday with an award for preparedness policy excellence, and supply chain executives will meet with over 110 lawmakers, including members of the Senate HELP and House Transportation and Infrastructure committees, to discuss efforts to resolve transportation delays in the health care supply chain.

A message from Freight Rail Works:

America's freight railroads are working 24/7 to provide efficient, sustainable and customer-focused solutions to supply chain issues. We've increased capacity, hiring, and coordination across our network to better serve all the critical industries that keep the U.S. economy strong. Learn more about how we're improving every day to better serve our customers.

Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Did I miss your fly-in? Get in touch: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

BUSINESS LEADERS PROD LAWMAKERS ON CHINA BILL: More than 120 top executives from an array of different industries nudged congressional negotiators hammering out compromise legislation to boost U.S. competitiveness with China to swiftly strike a deal that would send the sprawling package to President Joe Biden's desk.

— "The competitiveness legislation pending in Congress is critical to the U.S. economy, national security, and supply chain resilience," executives including Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, Amazon's Andy Jassy, Siemens' Barbara Humpton, Samsung's Bret Taylor, Raytheon's Greg Hayes and Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman wrote in a letter to congressional leadership today.

— The letter, organized by the Semiconductor Industry Association (whose members have $52 billion in subsidies for chipmakers on the line) is short and sweet — the message itself is only three paragraphs, but the list of signatures spans six pages. It appears to reflect a new urgency on behalf of the business community, as it follows reports that negotiations on the bills are on the verge of collapse, "with Republicans growing skeptical of the measure as midterm elections near and Democrats focusing instead on gun violence," according to Bloomberg.

— "The rest of the world is not waiting for the U.S. to act," the business leaders wrote. "Our global competitors are investing in their industry, their workers, and their economies, and it is imperative that Congress act to enhance U.S. competitiveness."

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.

FORMER TOOMEY, BANKING AIDE REGISTERS TO LOBBY FOR CRYPTO EXCHANGE: Crypto exchange FTX has hired Eliora Katz , a former staffer on the Senate Banking Committee, as director of government relations and policy. Katz registered earlier this month to be the company's first in-house lobbyist after working under Toomey, the committee's top Republican, since last March.

— She'll join lobbyists from Rich Feuer Anderson and T Cap Solutions , and will lobby on a bill that would hand much of the digital asset industry's regulation over to the CFTC, the industry's preferred regulator over the SEC.

AHA LOBBYIST STRIKES OUT ON HIS OWN: Erik Rasmussen, who ran the American Hospital Association's advocacy shop for years, has hung a shingle — recently starting his own boutique lobbying firm and signing four state hospital associations.

— The new firm, Meridian Government Affairs, is named after the westernmost stone that laid out the original boundaries of Washington, D.C. (which is also the name of his kids' high school), located in Falls Church, Va. So far, he's inked the Washington state, North Dakota and Montana hospital trade groups. He'll be working to push lawmakers on more funding for hospitals, which have been hammered by the pandemic, and on Medicaid and Medicare policy.

— "Hospitals are good at sticking together," he told POLITICO in a telephone call. "They hired me because they want to stay in the boat with the hospital family — but the reality is, there are small differences along the margins that, sometimes, specific states need specific attention."

A message from Freight Rail Works:

HOW TWITTER'S POLITICAL AD BAN IS GOING: Protocol's Issie Lapowsky has a great pre-midterm examination of Twitter's ban on political ads , the lede of which does a great job at capturing how enforcement of those policies, meant to curb political disinformation by avoiding the topic altogether, has raised a whole new set of issues.

— "Say ExxonMobil wanted to run an ad on Twitter about how natural gas is actually totally climate-friendly. The company could get certified as a 'cause-based' advertiser, provide some basic details like its company ID and country of origin, and fire away," she writes. "But if Erik Polyak, managing director of the climate advocacy group 314 Action , wanted to run an ad debunking that very debunkable claim, he couldn't. 314 Action is registered as a political action committee and, in late 2019, Twitter announced it would no longer take ads from PACs — or political candidates, parties or government officials, for that matter."

— At the time, then-CEO Jack Dorsey argued that "political message reach should be earned, not bought." But "as the midterm elections loom, questions remain about how apolitical these policies really are and whether they're actually reducing abuse or simply taking the spotlight off of the companies that imposed them."

— "'They launched this policy that's really tilted the playing field,' Polyak said of Twitter. 'Instead of getting serious about disinformation on the platform, they've just gravitated towards this one-size-fits-all policy that really favors big corporations and penalizes advocacy groups like us.'"

— "It's hard to measure the impact these political ad bans have had on elections, or on platforms, in part because none of the platforms has shared any research measuring their impact — that is, if any have done that research at all. Protocol asked Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn and Pinterest if they had any data on the effect of the ad bans: Twitter, TikTok and Pinterest did not respond directly to the question, and LinkedIn said it didn't have data to share."

Jobs Report

— Michael Kelly has joined Hunton Andrews Kurth's global economic development and government relations team as a director of strategic communications and advocacy. He most recently was chief of staff and communications director for former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring.

— KayAnn Schoeneman has been promoted to be president of strategic communications firm Curley Company. She most recently was executive vice president at the firm. Founder Jennifer Curley will continue as CEO.

— GrayRobinson has added Nick Manriquez to its government affairs and lobbying team as a legislative analyst. He was most recently a paralegal in the Major Economic Crimes Bureau of the New York County District Attorney's Office.

— British polling firm J.L. Partners, helmed by former Theresa May chief pollster James Johnson and Tom Lubbock, has opened an office in the D.C. area.

— Christina Noel is now director of media relations at API. She previously was press secretary at the VA Department and is a Lamar Alexander and Marco Rubio alum.

— Sarah Sonies is now a content strategist for AARP's comms and public affairs team. She most recently was a managing supervisor at CURA Strategies and is a Patrick Kennedy alum.

A message from Freight Rail Works:

America's freight railroads provide more than just critical connections across the country. We help the U.S. economy compete on the global stage. We invest more than $20 billion a year to maintain and improve our infrastructure, so we can provide American industries with the safe and sustainable freight transportation they need to remain competitive worldwide. From construction materials to intermodal, agriculture to automotive, we're working 24/7 to better serve our customers through current supply chain issues and to prepare for future challenges. Click through to see how and why freight rail works.

New Joint Fundraisers

Chen-Rollins-Salas Victory Fund (Will Rollins for Congress, Jay Chen for Congress, Rudy Salas for Congress)

New PACs

1818 PAC (Super PAC)
Fighters For a Strong America PAC (Super PAC)
GRANITE STATE LEADERSHIP FUND (Super PAC)
Haitian American Votes PAC (Hybrid PAC)
NORTH CAROLINA PATRIOTS PAC (Super PAC)
NorthCoast (PAC)
Pushmataha PAC (Super PAC)
Southwest Conservative PAC (Hybrid PAC)

New Lobbying Registrations

Bose Public Affairs Group: Republic Airway's Holdings, Inc.
Hannegan Landau Poersch & Rosenbaum Advocacy, LLC: Asset Protection & Security Services, Lp
Hannegan Landau Poersch & Rosenbaum Advocacy, LLC: Cliffside Labs, LLC
Holland & Knight LLP: Triad Life Sciences, Inc.
Invariant LLC: Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P.
Maynor & Stiers, LLC: Radiance Technologies, Inc
O'Rourke And Associates, LLC: Minicap LLC
Thegroup Dc, LLC: Western Conservation Action
Tiber Creek Group: Humanity Forward

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.