BUSINESSES BEWARE: Business groups are worried about Rep.Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), Trump’s unconventional pick to lead the Labor Department, and they’re working behind the scenes to ensure they have business-friendly contacts at other key offices within the agency, reports our Nick Niedzwiadek. — Chavez-DeRemer’s support for some prominent union-friendly legislation has alarmed business interests. Employers have submitted names to transition staff for other top posts at the department — including regulators like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — that would ease their concerns. — “The maneuvering underscores how eager businesses are to turn the corner on what they see as the Biden administration’s baldly pro-union, anti-employer tilt on issues ranging from overtime pay to heat exposure protections for workers. While Chavez-DeRemer may turn out to be a strong ally in what is expected to be a very pro-business Trump White House, they want some assurances.” OLD MACDONALD HAD A FARM (BILL): Corporate lobby spending on nutrition issues has ramped up as the latest farm bill’s passage is delayed, reports Emma Rose Brown for OpenSecrets. — The farm bill is a sweeping measure that authorizes nutrition programs for low-income Americans and assistance to U.S. farmers, agricultural manufacturers and ranches. Three-quarters of the funding contained in the bill is allocated to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget and it feeds about 42 million Americans each day. — “As of the election, organizations that lobbied on SNAP had spent a total of $340 million on all lobbying activities (not just SNAP) since the current Congress convened in January 2023, nearly doubling the amount spent prior to the bill’s previous reauthorization in 2018.” — The American Medical Association and AARP were the top two spenders — both organizations have spent a combined $70 million since the first quarter of 2023. Other key players include Amazon, which has spent $34 million in the last two years, and Walmart, which has spent a combined $12.9 million since 2023. STEPPING BACK: The head of Senate Leadership Fund, the top super PAC for Senate Republicans, is stepping aside after a decade of running one of the most prominent big-money groups in U.S. politics, reports Shane Goldmacher for The New York Times. — Steven Law’s decision to depart as chief executive coincides with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) leaving his post as the Republican leader in the Senate. Law has known McConnell since 1987 and once served as McConnell’s chief of staff. He oversaw the rise of the Senate Leadership Fund and One Nation, its nonprofit arm, into a well-oiled behemoth for Republicans. — “The two groups raised $2.3 billion in the last decade, officials said, and Mr. Law became a trusted custodian of the contributions from some of the wealthiest donors in the GOP, including Paul Singer, Kenneth C. Griffin, Stephen A. Schwarzman and other Wall Street titans.” — Law is leaving the Senate Leadership Fund after an election cycle that resulted in significant Republican gains. “His departure clears the way for the incoming Republican majority leader, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, to install his own ally or trusted adviser atop the super PAC.” RBG FOR WHO?: Elon Musk was the sole funder of a super PAC that spent millions on ads claiming Trump was aligned with late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s position on abortion, our Jessica Piper reports. — “The $20.5 million that Musk put into that group, RBG PAC, accounted for just a small fraction of his total political spending this year, which included $238 million to a super PAC he started and millions more to other GOP groups.” — RBG PAC spent nearly all of its money on advertising. Its ads claim that Trump was of “one mind” with Ginsburg, a longtime liberal justice and women’s rights advocate, on the issue of abortion. The PAC’s website featured photos of Trump and Ginsburg with the caption “great minds think alike.” While justices typically avoid speaking publicly about presidential politics, Ginsburg’s dying wish in 2020 was that she not be replaced on the bench by Trump. — Musk, now poised to advise Trump under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, spent more than $260 million in the 2024 election, making him the largest individual political donor this cycle. He became a major political player this year, endorsing Trump and appearing with him on the campaign trail. Musk’s spending was mostly in the presidential race, but he also dropped millions for down-ballot elections. CORDIALLY INVITED: The fundraising effort for Trump’s inauguration will include a pair of K Street figures. “Honored to serve as a Finance Chair and Vice Chair of the Inauguration of President Donald J. Trump and Vice President-Elect Senator JD Vance!” Reince Priebus, Trump’s former chief of staff and a leader at the government affairs firm Michael Best Strategies, wrote in a post on X on Thursday. — The finance team also includes Jeff Miller, the founder of Miller Strategies and a top Republican fundraiser, as well as megadonor Miriam Adelson and Wisconsin business owner Diane Hendricks. SPOTTED on Thursday at a celebration marking 20 years of Mozilla’s Firefox, per a tipster: Daniel Zhao, an advisor at the FTC; Gigi Sohn, the executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband; Alexandra Reeve Givens, the CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology; Lori Ismail, deputy floor director for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.); James Mann, legislative director for Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.); Natalie McIntyre, legislative director for Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.); Alissa Cooper, executive director of the Knight-Georgetown Institute; Jenn Taylor Hodges, director of Mozilla’s U.S. Public Policy & Government Relations; Kush Amlani, Mozilla’s global competition and regulatory counsel; Andrew Overholt, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering; Linda Griffin, Mozilla’s vice president of global policy; Nabiha Syed, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation; and Alan Davidson, assistant secretary of Commerce and Information and NTIA administrator. — And at BGR Group’s holiday party at the National Building Museum, per a tipster: White House Director of the Office of Public Engagement Steve Benjamin; Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.); and Reps. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), John Joyce (R-Pa.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), Tony Wied (R-Wis.), Bill Foster (D-Ill.), Don Davis (D-N.C.), Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), Mike Flood (R-Neb.), Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), Troy Balderson (R-Ohio), Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), Daniel Meuser (R-Pa.), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), William Timmons (R-S.C.), Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), Steve Womack (R-Ark.), Michael Guest (R-Miss.), Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) and Trent Kelly (R-Miss.)
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