A LAST-DITCH PUSH FOR PERMITTING: A conservative climate group and a coalition of oil and gas trade associations are making an eleventh-hour plea for congressional leaders to let permitting reforms ride along any year-end legislation, even as Trump yesterday pledged to fast-track the permitting process, bypassing environmental reviews for projects with more than $1 billion in investment. — “While we certainly support additional Congressional action on the issue in the 119th Congress,” the oil and gas industry groups said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday, passing bipartisan permitting legislation from Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) this year would “expedite President Trump’s ability to execute on his promise to unleash American energy early in his first term,” they argued. — The letter was signed by the Energy Workforce & Technology Council, the Gulf Energy Alliance, the International Association of Drilling Contractors, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the National Ocean Industries Association, the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, the U.S. Oil & Gas Association and the Western Energy Alliance. — In a separate letter to leadership in both chambers, right-leaning climate group Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions reiterated its backing for Manchin and Barrasso’s bill while making the case for its urgency. — “If we are to address high energy prices that are hurting American families and re-establish America as a global energy and manufacturing leader, we cannot wait any longer for meaningful permitting reforms and action,” the group’s president, Heather Reams, wrote. “The time to act is now.” ISAKOWITZ HEADS BACK TO THE HILL: Mark Isakowitz, the head of Google’s D.C. office, is returning to the Hill to serve as chief of staff to incoming Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.). Isakowitz joined the tech giant in 2019 as its vice president of government affairs and public policy for the U.S. and Canada after serving as former Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-Ohio) top aide for four years. — Before that, he was a longtime partner and president at Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock, the lobbying firm now known as Fierce Government Relations. Isakowitz is also an alum of the National Federation of Independent Business and the George W. Bush transition. Axios first reported Isakowitz’s departure. — Isakowitz has steered Google through a tumultuous half-decade for the tech industry, which has managed to stave off several pieces of bipartisan antitrust legislation that would rein in online giants despite antagonism from both sides of the aisle. — Google was less fortunate in the courtroom, where a judge earlier this year ruled the company’s search engine acted as an illegal monopoly. And Trump has vowed to keep his foot on the gas against the tech industry while in office with the help of key appointments at DOJ and the FTC. — Cris Turner, Google’s top lobbyist on the Knowledge and Information team, will lead the D.C. office while the company searches for Isakowitz’s successor along with Senior Director of Federal Affairs Anne Wall, spokesperson José Castaneda told PI, adding that the team is well-positioned for 2025. — “Mark has been a terrific colleague and leader who's built a great team during his five years at Google,” global head of public policy Karan Bhatia said in a statement. “We’re sorry to see him leave, but are proud of him for once again serving the country, and wish him every success.” SPEAKING OF SILICON VALLEY: Our colleagues are up with a great series of stories looking at the wave of tech billionaires coming to Washington next year and what they might do with that new power. Our Derek Robertson notes that unlike the tech titans of yore, the new crop of wealthy executives and investors like Elon Musk, David Sacks and Marc Andreessen don’t leave much to the imagination as to their motivations and policy preferences. — “Whether on podcasts, lengthy posts on X and Substack, or through influential self-published manifestos, the tech characters now heavily involved in President-elect Donald Trump’s transition have a clear track record of demands, expectations and ideas, all delivered with the classic Silicon Valley confidence that they can run the government better than the government itself.” — “The picture that emerges is one of a sweeping deregulatory agenda touching everything from crypto to artificial intelligence to fields like the defense industry and health technology.” — Our colleagues Paul McLeary and Jack Detsch drilled down on what the looming Silicon Valley takeover portends for the Pentagon in particular — namely, a culture and ethics clash between “the long-frustrated kings of the Valley who bristle at the doddering pace of Pentagon decision-making” but “could force real change in the building — and benefit themselves while trying.” — Some of the limits of that influence may already be beginning to show, however. Despite a weekend endorsement of kids online safety legislation by Musk and Donald Trump Jr. thanks to changes made by one of the bill’s key sponsors, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), our Ruth Reader reports that the changes have yet to sway holdouts in the GOP House leadership in whose hands lie its fate. ANNALS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE: “Amid a floundering independent run for president this summer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. quietly inked a fund-raising agreement that allowed him to ask supporters for bigger donations. The deal was lucrative — but not just for Kennedy’s campaign. It also ended up being a boon for some of his political opponents and even an obscure Massachusetts political group,” The Boston Globe’s Tal Kopan reports. — The joint fundraising committee “was set up with the Libertarian National Committee, to bolster the Kennedy campaign. But Kennedy was never on the Libertarian ticket; he ran a rival independent campaign. In fact, after he dropped out of the race, most of the money went into supporting Donald Trump.” — “Such agreements are meant to allow political allies to join forces in the money hunt. But this little-noticed, unusual agreement is between rivals and highlights the lengths to which Kennedy went to buoy his flagging political aspirations and then pay off his campaign debt, as well as the murky and rarely enforced rules of campaign finance law.” SPOTTED at the Irish ambassador’s residence for a holiday party thrown by Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, per a tipster: Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Dentons’ Joe Crowley, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, former Assistant Secretary of State Marie Royce, KAConsulting’s Kellyanne Conway, Georgetown University professors Cóilín Parsons and Darragh Gannon, Northeastern University’s Jack Cline, RB Crowe’s Bob Crowe, RN Peirce International’s Bob Peirce and FedNet’s Keith Carney.
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