SPEAKING OF MILWAUKEE: “Cryptocurrency, once relegated to the fringes of American politics, is set to make its debut as an issue at a major party convention this week in Milwaukee,” our Jasper Goodman reports, with representatives from several top crypto firms planning to take their case to GOP power brokers at the RNC this week amid the industry’s aggressive push to shape the 2024 elections in its favor. — “Representatives from Coinbase and Ripple, as well as the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, are planning to attend. The firms, which are the leading backers of a super PAC group that has raised more than $160 million to elect pro-crypto candidates, also plan to send delegations to the Democratic National Convention in August.” — “‘This election year, crypto has become a political issue,’ said Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty, who plans to represent the firm at the RNC alongside CEO Brad Garlinghouse. … Alderoty said the firm's goals at the RNC include advocating for crypto legislation with policymakers and simply ensuring that the industry is noticed as having a presence.” — At the RNC, industry execs “will be preaching to the choir” all the way on up to the top of the ticket, Jasper writes — but that wasn’t always the case, and the Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey has some of the backstory of how Trump’s conversion came to be. — “The about-face comes after an aggressive campaign by wealthy cryptocurrency executives, who have lavished Trump’s campaign with donations, spent money at Mar-a-Lago to hold events, promised to hold fundraisers for his 2024 campaign and lobbied him with sharp criticisms of President Biden and his administration.” — Trump's “interest was piqued on cryptocurrency … when a group of donors came to Mar-a-Lago and said they would support his campaign and complained about Biden administration officials, including SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.” CONSUMER BANKERS LAUNCH CFPB FACT CHECKER: The Consumer Bankers Association is taking its latest dig at the CFPB by launching a new website purporting to show that the agency is misrepresenting its own numbers to push ahead with what the finance industry says are rulemakings driven by ideology rather than data. — CFPBfactcheck.com repackages a series of blog posts from the Wall Street trade group highlighting policy examples where CBA says the CFPB has distorted data to support new financial restrictions. The site focuses in particular on proposed crackdowns on credit card late fees, overdraft and nonsufficient funds services and scam and fraud in electronic payments — all issues on which the banking industry has clashed with the Biden administration. — “This has raised questions about whether their policy agenda is more focused on political wins than what is empirically best for the public,” the site says, describing CBA’s push as one to “reground the policy discussion around objective data.” — In a statement, CBA President and CEO Lindsey Johnson argued that the CFPB “has an obligation to develop policy based on objective facts and data, not electoral politics” and that while the association supports CFPB’s mission, “these continued actions may harm the reputation and legitimacy of the Bureau for years to come.” PREPPING FOR TRUMP: “Environmental leaders have spent years working to defeat Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House. Another task has become increasingly urgent — preparing to thwart his policies if Trump, who on Saturday survived an assassination attempt, wins,” our Zack Colman reports. — “The woes besetting President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign since his disastrous June 27 debate have heightened the stakes for green groups strategizing about how they would maneuver during a second Trump administration.” — “Those efforts, already months in the planning, have included detailed examinations of conservatives’ policy roadmaps for Trump 2.0, as well as discussions of how recent Supreme Court decisions hobbling the executive branch could be used to protect climate actions from Trump's planned attempts to reverse them.” — “Environmental leaders are also getting ready to enlist local and state officials and businesses benefiting from Biden’s historic climate investments to step up and lobby in their favor. In some cases, that would involve using corporate go-betweens to reach out to Republican lawmakers who typically clash with environmental groups.” ICYMI OVER THE WEEKEND: “The country’s top organization for human-resources professionals is distancing itself from the ‘equity’ plank of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI,” per The Wall Street Journal’s Ray A. Smith and Lynn Cook. — “SHRM, a lobbying and advocacy group with 340,000 members, announced this week that it wants employers to focus on inclusion and diversity efforts—in that order. The group, a powerful lobby in Washington, said that it’s moving away from equity language to ensure no group of workers appears to get preferential treatment.” — “The announcement is the latest example of business leaders grappling with diversity measures during a time when those very efforts face fire from legal, political and employee groups,” but isn’t a total shocker: SHRM swapped the DEI abbreviation several years ago for IE&D, or inclusion, equity and diversity.
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