News: What foreign governments are asking K Street about the reconciliation bill

Friday, July 29, 2022

What foreign governments are asking K Street about the reconciliation bill

Jul 29, 2022

With Daniel Lippman

FARA FRIDAY: Lobbyists in Washington weren't only fielding queries over the last 48 hours from corporate clients asking for a read on Democrats' newly expanded reconciliation package . Foreign governments have expressed interest in the latest legislative surprise as well, BGR's Fred Turner told PI.

— "They wanted to better understand the process," said Turner, who previously served as chief of staff to Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). "They're reporting back to their capitals from here in D.C. about, you know, what just happened and how is the next … seven to nine to 12 days going to play out?"

— "I think it's hard enough if you've spent, you know, 20 years on Capitol Hill, to understand a privileged message coming from the House, and what the Byrd process means," he continued, referring to procedural requirements for the reconciliation process Democrats are using to skirt a GOP filibuster. Part of it is explaining those mechanisms to foreign representatives whose governments work off a parliamentary or unicameral structure.

— Other questions have come from "those countries that feel like the U.S. made a commitment on climate. And then, you know, it got walked back during the last administration, and now [President Joe] Biden's trying to push it forward" again, he said.

Happy Friday and welcome to PI , where we're glad that after this week we all can have a new Beyoncé album to listen to, as a treat. Send K Street tips and musings and your Renaissance unskippables: coprysko@politico.com . And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko .

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BUSINESSES SCORED SOME WINS IN TAX TITLE: While much of the business community has dinged the so-called book minimum tax included in the reconciliation deal struck by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer , the deal leaves out other tax changes rumored to have been in the works that the industry spoke out on.

— Recall that earlier this month, nearly 200 trade associations took aim at two tax provisions Democrats were eyeing for the bill: One that would expand a 3.8 percent surcharge on investment income known as the net investment income tax, and another that would expand and extend a limit on loss deductions by small businesses. Neither of those items appear to be in the legislative text released Wednesday night. ( h/t our friends at Morning Tax )

CARRIED INTEREST BACKERS BLINDSIDED OVER TAX DEAL: POLITICO's Sam Sutton reports that " private equity lobbyists were stunned when they found out that Schumer and Manchin had" included a provision moving to tighten the industry's beloved carried interest tax break in their additions to the reconciliation package.

— "'We've had a pretty good flow of intel about how Manchin feels about this for many months now,' said one industry advocate who requested anonymity to speak openly on the new bill.

'We did not anticipate this happening yesterday nor did we anticipate carried interest being included.'"

— "Private equity groups contend that the current structure encourages investment and have fought repeated attempts to change the tax code. 'Alternative asset managers, including hedge funds, crossover funds, and private credit funds, manage $1.5 trillion on behalf of pensions, foundations, and endowments,' Managed Funds Association President and CEO Bryan Corbett said in a statement. 'This proposal would punish entrepreneurs in investment partnerships by not affording them the benefit of long-term capital gains treatment.'"

— "Under Manchin and Schumer's deal, private funds would have to hold their investments for at least five years and wouldn't be able to start the clock until they hit technical thresholds. That change would generate just $14 billion to pay for the bill's $739 billion price tag. Even so, industry organizations are already making a push to convince Sen. Kyrsten Sinema , the Arizona Democrat who opposed earlier efforts to raise corporate taxes, to bat down the provision."

DARK MONEY GROUPS TARGET DRUG PRICING PROPOSAL: The conservative advocacy group American Commitment is dropping seven figures on a new ad blitz inside the beltway and targeting vulnerable and swing-vote Democratic lawmakers over the drug pricing provisions in the reconciliation bill.

— Ads airing in Nevada and Georgia will call out Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who face tough midterm reelection battles, while ads airing in West Virginia will appeal to Manchin, a crucial vote in the chamber, accusing the party of "raiding Medicare" by way of the drug pricing provisions.

— A narrator in the ad, whose sponsor has in the past received six-figure sums from PhRMA , says the proposal "cuts nearly $300 billion from Medicare … to prop up Obamacare, fuel inflation and pad insurers' profits."

— Morning Pulse reports that "another group, called the American Prosperity Alliance, has been running a targeted campaign in Nevada with a similar message. Cortez Masto is hitting back. Earlier this week, she spoke on the Senate floor about the American Prosperity Alliance and its messaging, which she called 'a deliberate lie.'"

— The ads echo a spot from the same group earlier this month , and the line of attack appears to stem from a CBO finding that the drug pricing provisions are estimated to save the federal government nearly $288 billion over 10 years.

FLYING IN: Financial advising firm Edward Jones wrapped up its fly-in on Thursday, holding more than 300 meetings on the Hill including with Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy . Financial advisers and branch office administrators discussed bipartisan retirement savings legislation and a bill aimed at helping military families save for retirement.

— The National Retail Federation's annual advocacy summit on Thursday drew more than 100 lawmakers, including Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). The event featured "an interactive journey through the retail industry with six immersive exhibits that demonstrate retail's role in driving the economy, providing jobs and impacting lives and communities across the country," the group said.

ANNALS OF FUNDRAISING: A Senate GOP lunch this summer at which lawmakers sounded off on a representative of Google over its email spam filters " marked the apex of a pressure campaign waged against Google by the GOP as the party continues to send unrelenting appeals for cash even amid signs its tactics are faltering," The Washington Post's Isaac Stanley-Becker and Josh Dawsey report.

— "The party's online fundraising has fallen off in recent months, declining by about 11 percent in the second quarter of the year, compared with the first, according to federal filings from WinRed , the main donation-processing portal for the Republicans. Online fundraising by Democrats increased by more than 21 percent, according to filings from the Democrats' main portal, ActBlue."

— "It's unclear what impact Google's spam filters have had on the GOP's fundraising, if any. Nevertheless, Republicans have waged a pressure campaign that has included public Twitter offensives and private discussions with Google chief executive Sundar Pichai. GOP lawmakers have introduced draft legislation in both chambers of Congress."

— "The effort's impact became apparent this month when Google asked the Federal Election Commission to green-light a pilot program that would exempt campaign emails from spam detection. That change could reshape the experience of Gmail users. The amount of political fundraising conducted over email and text has exploded in recent years, adding to the deluge of promotional messages swamping Americans every day. The program could further intensify the inundation."

WHAT THE BOEHNER WEED LAWSUIT CAN SHOW US: "One way or the other, the John Boehner weed lawsuit shows how cutthroat the cannabis sector of Washington's political-influence industry is," writes POLITICO Magazine's Michael Schaffer.

— "If you buy the complaint filed by Washington lobbyist James Pericola , you're liable to see evidence of a cutthroat business environment in the allegation that the former speaker of the House of Representatives, along with one of the capital's most storied law and lobbying shops, stole his talking points and confidential tactical plans for creating an umbrella cannabis advocacy group — before going out and starting an almost identical organization without him."

— "And if you're swayed by the response from Boehner and co-defendant Squire Patton Boggs, you'll see evidence of a cutthroat culture in their description of an environment where a comparative nobody can purport to claim intellectual property ownership over concepts that, in a more established industry, could hardly be described as secrets — and then have the gall to demand a court award him damages."

— "Boehner and Squire want the case dismissed. A D.C. judge will rule on the request sometime next month. And Pericola's side, meanwhile, wants the court to let them escape a VIP's dismissive brush-off. 'We think there are multiple factual issues that are going to come to light through the discovery process and depositions of the key individuals who are going to have a lot of explaining to do,' says former U.S. Congressman Bruce Braley, the lobbyist's lawyer. 'They're hopefully going to have to explain their behavior under oath.'"

SPOTTED at a happy hour hosted by ROKK Solutions ahead of the congressional baseball game on Thursday, per a PI tipster: Land O'Lakes' Garreth Hubbard, McDonalds' Alisa La, POLITICO's Jackie Padilla, Chipotle's Ryan Guthrie, Adobe's Bernard Elegbede, Business Roundtable's Jonay Holkins and ROKK's Ron Bonjean, Kristen Hawn, Tom Shaw, Rachael Payton and Lindsay Singleton.

Jobs Report

— Kate Ilahi and Whitney Jones are joining the National Association of Chain Drug Stores as directors of congressional relations. Ilahi most recently served as director of government relations for 340B Health and Jones most recently was a health policy analyst for the Senate Republican Policy Committee.

— Jeff Campbell has been promoted to chief government strategy officer at Cisco. He succeeds Michael Timmeny, who previously held the role and opened Cisco's Washington, D.C. office in 1998. Timmeny will now serve as an executive adviser for Cisco.

— Daniel Tannebaum is joining the Atlantic Council as a nonresident senior fellow with the GeoEconomic Center's Economic Statecraft Initiative. He was most recently a partner at Oliver Wyman.

— Michael Shapiro is now managing director of government affairs for Blackstone, with a focus on infrastructure investments and projects. He most recently was deputy assistant Transportation secretary for economic policy, and was a member of the White House Infrastructure Implementation Task Force.

— Monica Trauzzi is joining Invariant as a director, focused on sustainability, climate and energy. She most recently was at the Nuclear Energy Institute, and is an E&E News alum.

— Sarah Audelo will be deputy advocacy director, states at the Open Society Foundations. She most recently was executive director at Alliance for Youth.

New Joint Fundraisers

Devolder Santos Van Duyne Victory Committee (Rep. Beth Van Duyne, Devolder-Santos for Congress)
JERRY CARL CANDIDATE FUND (Finstad for Congress, Bognet for Congress, Lori Chavez-Deremer for Congress, Joy for NY, George Logan for Congress, Conservative American Republican Leadership PAC, NRCC)
NRCC California Victory (Scott Baugh for Congress, John Duarte for Congress, Matt Jacobs for Congress, Maryott for Congress, Tom Patti for Congress, NRCC, California Republican Party Federal Acct.)

New PACs

AMERICAN LIBERTY ACTION PAC (Super PAC)
AMPL ( Advancement of Minority Political Leaders) (Super PAC)
Asian Americans for Change Fund (Super PAC)
Conservative Republicans for Responsible Representation (PAC)
INLAND EMPIRE UNITED FEDERAL ACTION FUND (Hybrid PAC)
Make a Difference MN 05 (Super PAC)
New Blue USA (PAC)
NH-02 REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FUND 2022 (PAC)
TRUE WEST PAC, INC. (Super PAC)

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