CYBER FIRM SIGNS ADI: The cybersecurity firm Zscaler earlier this month hired defense lobbying firm American Defense International in the latest expansion of its advocacy footprint in Washington. Josh Martin , who previously served as chief of staff to former House Armed Services Chair Mac Thornberry, will work to set up meetings with officials on cyber issues, according to a disclosure filed Monday. — The digital security company has drastically scaled up its lobbying spending in recent months. In March, it retained J.A. Green and Company to lobby the Pentagon on cyber issues and the Hill on this year's NDAA. The same month, Zscaler's senior director of government affairs Kevin Cummins registered as the firm's first in-house lobbyist. Zscaler also retains one other firm, Hettinger Strategy Group. — So far this year the company reported spending $270,000 on federal lobbying, more than double the $130,000 Zscaler dropped in all of 2021. The upswing in spending coincides with a major cybersecurity package that passed the Senate this spring that, among other things would codify the responsibilities of the government's top cyber officials; set out reporting requirements for cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and ransomware payments made in response; and authorize a GSA program known as FedRAMP that regulates how agencies purchase cloud services. — Though the cyber package passed the Senate by unanimous consent, pieces of it — namely the private sector cyber incident reporting mandate — were incorporated into a spending bill signed by President Joe Biden, leaving the fate of the rest of the measure up in the air. WSJ, CHAMBER TRADE BLOWS OVER RECONCILIATION BILL: The Wall Street Journal's editorial board went after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last night in an op-ed chastising the business lobby for its controversial decision to endorse a slate of House Democrats in 2020, all of whom are expected to lend their votes this week to help pass the party's tax, climate and health care package that the chamber has fiercely opposed. — "The lobby's bet in 2020 that supporting 'centrist' House Democrats would protect against anti-business policies has been a bust," the editorial board argued. The Journal's opinion editors pin the blame for "this political misjudgment" on the chamber's new leader Suzanne Clark and chief policy officer Neil Bradley. — "Critics of the endorsements noted that most of the Chamber Democrats had a voting record of hostility to business," the piece says, pointing to past votes by the centrist Democrats to raise the minimum wage, backing the repeal of the 2017 GOP tax bill and favoring increased regulations. As a result, they argue, "Ms. Clark has squandered business money and influence in Washington, and the cost includes the taxes and regulation in Schumer-Manchin that will harm business for years." — But the chamber fired back at the broadsheet's assertions , contending the paper "ignores" the business lobby's recent wins, including passage of the infrastructure bill and USMCA and beating back the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill in discussion last year. "It seems the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board is searching for someone to blame for the Schumer-Manchin deal," the organization said in a post online. "Last week their thesis was that Senate Republicans had been 'played.' " — The chamber added that it had received an "outpouring of support" in response to a note from the leaders of its board to the full board on Monday that noted the group had endorsed nearly 200 GOP House candidates in 2020, and that candidates of all both parties "were judged on the same scorecard" — which last cycle began incorporating measures of "leadership" and "bipartisanship" — to reach its endorsements. INDUSTRY FIGHTS HEAT SAFETY RULES FOR WORKERS: As extreme heat becomes more pervasive across the country, The Washington Post's Anna Phillips reports that efforts in states to enact laws requiring "employers to provide outdoor workers with drinking water, shade and rest breaks on hot days" have been watered down or blocked "following opposition from industry groups representing agriculture, construction and other business interests, according to public records and those involved in efforts to craft new rules." — "The Biden administration's plan to draft heat rules for workers is likely to face similar resistance and legal challenges from the biggest companies," and the fate of those rules could come down to the winner of the 2024 presidential election. — "Across the country, industry leaders and lobbyists have made the same argument: States should put off writing their own rules until a national regulation takes effect. But business interests are working to create doubt about whether a national heat rule is needed — or even legal. In comments to OSHA, business groups have said that the compliance costs would be extreme and that employers are already doing the right thing." — "The American Farm Bureau Federation wrote to the agency, saying it should 'partner with employers' on better training materials instead of pursuing a new rule. The National Cotton Council wrote that many heat-related issues are not caused by farm work or poor management, 'but instead result from the modern employee lifestyle in an advanced 21st century global economy.' The group pinned workers' inability to withstand high temperatures on 'present-day luxuries such as air-conditioning' and Americans' 'sedentary lifestyle.'"
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