WHO’S GOT VANCE’S EAR: POLITICO Magazine’s Ian Ward has a nice rundown of the key members of Sen. JD Vance’s (R-Ohio) inner circle — from his core Senate staffers and campaign hands to his ideological influences on the so-called New Right and his posse of Silicon Valley venture capitalists and financiers. — The list includes familiar names like Peter Thiel, David Sacks and Donald Trump Jr. as well as figures like Notre Dame professor of political theory Patrick Deneen, who Vance “has cited … as a major intellectual influence,” and Vance’s deputy chief of staff and legislative director James Braid, a Heritage Action alum who “is the architect of Vance’s major policy initiatives in the Senate … and is trusted by Vance with translating his New Right worldview into policy proposals.” HARRIS’ HACKS: “Vice President Kamala Harris wasn’t at the world’s largest hacking conference this week, but her presidential ambitions received an unexpected boost when cybersecurity professionals and hackers — rallied by former Biden administration officials — raised over $150,000 for her campaign at a sideline event,” our Joseph Gedeon and Maggie Miller report. — “The ‘Hackers for Harris’ fundraiser on Thursday afternoon drew an estimated 150 attendees to the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the DEF CON event is being held. Organizers say the amount raised climbed past their revamped target of $150,000.” — “‘We exceeded the amount of money we hoped to earn,’ Kemba Walden, the former acting White House national cyber director under President Joe Biden and one of the key organizers of the event, told POLITICO.” — “The sum raised by hackers on Thursday surpassed the total amount of money raised during previous presidential cyber and hacker fundraisers centered around DEF CON. Fundraisers for then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 and a virtual fundraiser for President Joe Biden in 2020 brought in around $100,000 combined.” IS A BIDEN-CRYPTO THAW COMING? Our Jasper Goodman has a readout from the virtual meeting yesterday between top officials in the Biden administration and cryptocurrency leaders in which “executives pressed the White House to back pro-crypto legislation and expressed concern over its approach to regulating the sector, according to two people in the discussion.” — “The meeting, organized by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), included several figures in the administration, including National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed and Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. Kristine Lucius, a longtime aide to Vice President Kamala Harris, also attended, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to relay private conversations.” — “Several notable figures in the business world also attended, including venture capitalists Mark Cuban and Ron Conway and executives from crypto firms such as Coinbase, Ripple and Stellar.” — “Industry representatives urged the administration to publicly back an effort by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) to pass legislation overhauling how crypto is regulated, according to the people in the meeting. The administration officials acknowledged frustration from crypto leaders, the people said. But they were ‘largely in listening and learning mode,’ one of the people said, and did not make specific commitments.” WHAT CHIPMAKERS WANT NEXT: The trade group representing America’s top chipmakers reflected this week on the second anniversary of the CHIPS and Science Act becoming law, but the Semiconductor Industry Association is also laying out a roadmap for what the semiconductor industry would like to see from Washington next. — For one, SIA President and CEO John Neuffer wrote in a blog post on Thursday, the Commerce Department should finalize the projects it has already agreed to and begin getting money out the door, in addition to making commitments for remaining incentives from the bill. — The industry group is also calling for beefed-up tax incentives from CHIPS and Science to be included in next year’s tax debate so that they don’t expire in a few years, and for Congress to approve more funding for research initially laid out in the chips bill. They also want better workforce development initiatives to grow the pipeline of American STEM workers and attract top talent from overseas, where SIA is also calling for trade policies to boost demand and market access for American-made chips. — The Information Technology Industry Council has a similar set of asks in its own memo to mark this week’s anniversary. In addition to shoring up the chip ecosystem’s workforce and ensuring “sufficient” funding for research and development and science programs, ITI also wants to see coordination among those programs “to reduce administrative burden for industry participants” and international collaboration on research and setting industry standards. AN 11TH HOUR PUSH FOR MDMA THERAPIES: “More than a half century after federal regulators banned most psychedelic compounds, the Food and Drug Administration is nearing a decision on a novel treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder that pairs talk therapy with MDMA, the club drug commonly known as Ecstasy or Molly,” The New York Times’ Andrew Jacobs writes. — “The decision, which is expected in the coming days, has generated a groundswell of lobbying by veterans groups, researchers and members of Congress from both parties. Eighty lawmakers signed letters to the Biden administration this week, urging the F.D.A. to approve the application by the drug company Lykos Therapeutics.” — “The campaign was prompted in part by an expert panel’s overwhelming rejection in June of Lykos’s application, because of what participants said were flaws in the company’s clinical trials and insufficient data.” — “The lobbying campaign, unusual for a prospective new drug, underscores the high stakes and intense emotions surrounding psychedelic medicine, a field that has been growing in recent years as the country’s top universities race one another to establish psychedelic research institutes.”
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