MORE NEW BUSINESS: Grocery delivery app Instacart has added another outside lobbying firm. The company brought on Emergent Strategies' Scott Eckert, Hadley Sosnoff, Michael Claunch and Leigh Parker Pross in February to lobby on future of work, data privacy and consumer protection issues, as well as food safety and labeling, nutrition and the SNAP and WIC programs, according to newly filed disclosures. — The company retains two other lobbying firms, Subject Matter and Harbinger Strategies , and dropped nearly $1 million on lobbying last year as companies which dispatch their workers via an app gear up for a potential crack down on their business models by the Biden administration. Instacart last month helped launch a new coalition funded by fellow gig companies to lobby for the industry's priorities in Washington. DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK: Paul Manafort is returning to the consulting world, Daniel and Hailey Fuchs reported this morning, less than four years after pleading guilty to a series of lobbying charges and his conviction on financial charges stemming from an investigation involving his work as a consultant for a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party. — The former Donald Trump campaign chair, who was pardoned by Trump on his way out of office, doesn't plan to resume the kind of Washington influence-peddling or the foreign lobbying work that helped get him in legal trouble in the first place. Instead, Manafort will work on "general business consulting," Daniel reports. "When you're as old as I am, you have a lot of breadth and depth and are able to help people with strategic advice to solve their problems or give them comfort," Manafort said, though he declined to go into further detail on his new business ventures. — Manafort, who made millions working for former pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, criticized Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "The U.S. and Europe need to be much more aggressive with providing Ukraine with the lethal weapons that they need to defend themselves," Manafort, whose past work includes involvement in a Ukraine "peace deal" favorable to the Kremlin's interests, told Daniel. (More on that from a 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report). COOK MOVES TO PIT PRIVACY INDUSTRY AGAINST ANTITRUST PUSH: "Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday urged privacy professionals to rally against the tech antitrust bills moving through Congress during a speech at a leading privacy conference," our Emily Birnbaum reports. — "Cook used his keynote speech at the International Association of Privacy Professionals to criticize policymakers pushing the antitrust legislation, warning their proposals could make it difficult for Apple to protect its users' privacy," calling the current climate "a pivotal moment in the battle for privacy." — "Those of us who create technology and make the rules that govern it have a profound responsibility to the people we serve. Let us embrace that responsibility," he added. The comments come as "Apple has been ramping up its lobbying efforts against the bill, warning lawmakers that it could erode user privacy. Several lawmakers repeated those concerns during the Senate Judiciary Committee markup of the bill." — "Cook's call to action could help mobilize privacy professionals to enter the antitrust debate, offering credibility to Apple's arguments against the legislation. But there's significant division within the privacy community over whether the antitrust bills would actually harm user privacy. A standards body for electrical engineers earlier this month said the antitrust legislation is 'not a significant threat to personal privacy.' — "'We are deeply concerned about regulations that would undermine privacy and security in service of some other aim,' Cook said, repeating what Apple lobbyists and Cook himself have been saying to lawmakers behind closed doors about the Open App Markets Act, S. 2710 (117)." TRUCK MANUFACTURING GROUP NOT WALKING THE WALK ON EVS: POLITICO's Debra Kahn has a good look at how the promises by truck engine manufacturers such as Volvo and Daimler when it comes to converting their fleets into electric versions don't match up with lobbying by the sector's main trade group against state and federal rules to boost zero-emission trucks. — The group, the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, "is arguing that federal and state rules intended to boost numbers of zero-emission trucks are too onerous" as "regulators are increasingly turning their attention to trucks as the next frontier for cutting motor vehicle pollution." — "EMA's president, Jed Mandel , said the demand isn't necessarily there. 'Their customers haven't bought them yet, and there's no guarantee they will,' he said of Volvo and Daimler's plans." He also argued that EPA's recently imposed limits on emissions from heavy-duty vehicles "creates more regulatory uncertainty because the agency had already settled on greenhouse gas standards through model year 2027 under the Obama administration, which he said are already 'very challenging.' Environmentalists are pushing back against EMA. Sierra Club and 18 other groups sent the organization a letter Monday urging it to support stronger standards. — "EMA and truck manufacturers are also lobbying against state-level rules that go further than the EPA proposal. California already has a regulation, approved in 2020, requiring manufacturers to sell increasing percentages of zero-emission trucks. Five other states have adopted it as part of California's ability under the Clean Air Act to set stricter-than-federal vehicle emissions rules. The lobbying group has lodged objections to other states considering adopting California's rules over the past year." MEANWHILE, IN NEW YORK: "Lt. Gov. Brian A. Benjamin of New York, the state's second-in-command to Gov. Kathy Hochul, was charged with bribery and fraud in a federal indictment unsealed on Tuesday that accused him of directing a brazen scheme to funnel illegal donations to his past political campaigns and cover up the criminal activity," The New York Times' William K. Rashbaum, Nick Fandos and Jeffery C. Mays report. — "The five-count indictment said Mr. Benjamin conspired to direct $50,000 in state funds to a Harlem real estate developer's charity while he was a state senator. In exchange, the developer orchestrated thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to Mr. Benjamin's unsuccessful 2021 campaign for New York City comptroller and to his Senate campaign, the indictment said." — "Mr. Benjamin was also accused of offering to help the developer, Gerald Migdol, obtain a zoning variance if he made a $15,000 donation to a separate fund for State Senate Democrats. The developer was arrested on federal charges in November."
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