AFL-CIO TAPS NEW TOP LOBBYIST: Bill Samuel is stepping down as the top lobbyist for the labor giant AFL-CIO after more than two decades with the federation, the group announced today. He’ll be succeeded by veteran labor lawyer Jody Calemine, who will serve as director of advocacy for the 12.5 million-member group.
— Calemine was most recently a senior fellow and director of labor and employment policy at the left-leaning think tank the Century Foundation. Before that, he was general counsel and then chief of staff at the Communications Workers of America, one of the more than four dozen unions under the AFL-CIO umbrella. — Calemine also was a top Democratic lawyer on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, where he helped pass marquee labor bills including the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and minimum wage increases as well as the Affordable Care Act. INSURERS PLOT NEXT STEPS ON SITE NEUTRALITY: “Insurers, unable to push through a top legislative priority in the latest spending bill, are already working on plan B — a lobbying blitz targeting lawmakers at home and in Washington,” per our Megan Wilson. — “It’s an uphill climb and requires overcoming opposition from the powerful hospital industry and hesitation by its allies in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But insurers, employers, unions and consumer groups are eyeing a possible year-end package as a vehicle for a policy that could save taxpayers billions.” — “Though there was bipartisan interest, a deal could not be reached in part because of the efforts from hospitals, which stand to lose billions of dollars over the next decade and warned members that the cuts would be devastating to care, particularly in rural communities. Proponents of the policy plan to spend the next several months countering that argument by telling Congress that the status quo has consumers paying the price.” KOHR STEPPING DOWN: “Howard Kohr, the longtime chief executive of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, will retire at the end of the year after nearly 30 years atop the influential pro-Israel organization,” per Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch. — The announcement “comes as the organization gears up to spend tens of millions of dollars on congressional races this year. That AIPAC is now playing a major, direct role in elections is a result of a massive strategic shift that Kohr and co-CEO Richard Fishman, who died in October, oversaw in recent years, moving the organization away from grassroots bipartisan lobbying and toward political spending.” — “Kohr’s tenure at AIPAC has included several key moments in the U.S.-Israel alliance, including the completion of a 10-year funding package approved by Congress in 2016 and the decision by the Trump administration to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In recent months, the group has lobbied Congress to pass $14.3 billion in supplemental security assistance to Israel.” — “Kohr’s years at the helm of AIPAC also coincided with growing partisanship in Washington. AIPAC has always worked closely with both Democrats and Republicans, but building broad bipartisan consensus on legislative priorities became more difficult in recent years.” MNUCHIN’S TANGLED TIKTOK WEB: Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s possible bid to buy TikTok is a “unique twist in a long-running saga that has raised new ethics alarms in Washington” given his role in trying to force the video app’s sale during the Trump administration, The Washington Post’s Tony Romm writes. — “For Mnuchin, 61, TikTok represents a tantalizing business opportunity and a potential political quagmire. The founder of a Washington-based private equity firm, Mnuchin announced this month that he hopes to ‘put together a group’ that could purchase TikTok if Congress requires its owner, ByteDance, to divest its stake in the social network.” — As Treasury secretary, Mnuchin “personally advised former president Donald Trump — and oversaw a national security investigation — as the administration nearly forced the sale of TikTok to companies including Microsoft, Oracle and Walmart. The role granted Mnuchin rare access to nonpublic information about the company, including highly classified material about its practices, potentially offering him a critical advantage in any future sale.” — Mnuchin’s prospective bid has already drawn backlash from Democrats on the Hill over investments from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds in the private equity firm Mnuchin set up after leaving office. But he “has started laying the political groundwork for a deal,” reportedly reaching out to his friend, TikTok critic and Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) this month. — Meanwhile our Josh Sisco reports TikTok is facing a new threat separate from the stalled effort in Congress to force its divestiture from ByteDance: “The Federal Trade Commission has been investigating TikTok over allegedly faulty privacy and data security practices, and could decide in the coming weeks to bring a lawsuit or settlement, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.” — “The commission is weighing allegations that TikTok, and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance, deceived its users by denying that individuals in China had access to their data, and also violated a children’s privacy law, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a confidential matter.” WYDEN WANTS MANAFORT INTEL: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is urging Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify intelligence detailing Paul Manafort’s ties to Russian spies, amid reports the Trump campaign could soon swoop up its embattled former campaign adviser for a new role this year, John reports in NatSec Daily. — In a letter sent to Haines on Tuesday, Wyden wrote that redacted portions of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on Russian election meddling in 2016 contain critical additional information on Manafort, whom the Trump campaign is now eyeing for a campaign adviser role. — The public sections of the report already deemed Manafort — who was indicted on tax and bank fraud felonies before being pardoned by Trump — a “grave counterintelligence threat” to the U.S. due to his ties to Kremlin intelligence assets. But Wyden argued there’s more there — and that the Trump campaign’s interest in his work justifies making it public now.
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