With Daniel Lippman GEORGIA ADOPTS FOREIGN AGENT LAW: Georgia’s parliament voted today to override a presidential veto and adopt a contentious new law that would require Western-backed NGOs and media outlets to register as foreign agents in spite of threats from leaders in Washington and Brussels alike, per our Gabriel Gavin and Dato Parulava. — The new law, which has sparked widespread protests in the country over its similarities to a Russian foreign agent law that has been weaponized to stifle political opposition, triggered the State Department last week to issue a series of travel bans for Georgian politicians responsible for pushing the law through, and EU officials have warned the law jeopardizes Georgia’s candidacy to join the EU. — The law also drew condemnation from international business groups, like the Center for International Private Enterprise, which warned it “will drive away investment, disincentivize innovation and could be used to silence civil society and the media who are working to strengthen Georgia’s democratic institutions and assist with its EU integration.” — “While we are disappointed about the recent passage of the foreign agent’s law and its possible implications, CIPE remains committed to supporting democracy and market access in Georgia,” said Abdulwahab Alkebsi, the managing director of the group, which is affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. — “The impact of the foreign influence law on the business environment cannot be disentangled from its impact on Georgia’s democracy and international standing,” the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia wrote in an op-ed Monday. — The group, whose members include Georgian arms of companies such as BP, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, General Electric, Mastercard, Mars and UPS, noted that its members have already reported a hit to their foreign investments. “Whichever way one looks at it, the law will make us less secure, less independent, and poorer” and “should be withdrawn,” the op-ed concludes. Happy Tuesday and welcome to PI. Send us the best K Street gossip you overheard over the holiday weekend: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on the platform formerly known as Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. THE IRA’S UNLIKELIEST OF SAVIORS: “Two of Washington’s most powerful Republican-leaning industry groups are gearing up to defend President Joe Biden’s climate law if the GOP retakes the White House next year — setting up a potential collision between big business and a future Trump administration,” E&E News’ Kelsey Brugger writes. — “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute largely opposed the Inflation Reduction Act two years ago, when Congress passed it entirely with Democratic votes. Both groups have railed against major aspects of Biden’s climate strategy, especially his efforts to change rules on federal environmental reviews and pause natural gas export approvals.” — “But the IRA also contains hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks and spending that could benefit key members of both powerhouse trade groups — including money for advanced manufacturing of clean energy technologies. … And those are provisions that the big business lobbies would fight to keep,” in “an example of the potential for the administration’s sweeping, $1.6 trillion climate, energy and infrastructure agenda to reshape traditional power alliances in Washington, even as former President Donald Trump hints at a wholesale eradication of Biden’s policies.” NEW BUSINESS: George Washington University tapped help from K Street earlier this month as the D.C. school faced pressure from Congress over its handling of pro-Palestinian protest encampments on campus, according to a newly filed disclosure. — On May 6 — days before the House Oversight Committee canceled a planned grilling of D.C. officials over GWU’s encampments — the university retained a team of lobbyists from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman that includes former Reps. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) and Greg Laughlin (R-Texas), the filing shows. The firm is working on “higher education issues” for GWU. Neither GWU nor Pillsbury responded to requests for more details about their work. — It’s the first time GWU has had outside lobbyists on retainer since 2009, according to a PI analysis of disclosures, as higher education grapples with mounting discord over the war in Gaza and withering political criticism over colleges’ handling of that discontent. — The streaming service Fubo has hired its first outside lobbyist amid an industry showdown over whether to revamp broadcasting rules for the streaming era. The streamer hired TeleMedia Policy Corp.’s Justin Lilley, a former staffer and lawyer for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in April to lobby on competition and communications issues related to virtual multichannel video programming distributors, per a disclosure filing. — Fubo is part of a coalition of major broadcasters and production and streaming companies trying to nip a budding effort to get the FCC to reexamine broadcast rules, which currently cover cable and satellite TV providers, and have them apply to streaming platforms as well. The coalition was on the Hill last week, where it hosted a reception for lawmakers and staff. — Meanwhile Jeff Ricchetti, the brother of White House adviser Steve Ricchetti, has signed his first new client in more than a year. Biopharmaceutical company Amgen retained Ricchetti Inc. last month to lobby on issues related to the drug industry, according to a filing. Ricchetti’s most recent new client before that was the gaming company Pace-O-Matic, which he signed in March 2023. FTX GOP ENVOY SENTENCED: “Ryan Salame, a top executive at the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on Tuesday, making him the first of Sam Bankman-Fried’s circle of advisers at FTX to receive prison time,” per the New York Times’ David Yaffe-Bellany. — Salame, “a trusted lieutenant of Mr. Bankman-Fried, the exchange’s founder, pleaded guilty last year to a campaign finance law violation and a charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business,” and was one of several FTX insiders to plead guilty but the only one who declined to cooperate with prosecutors in Bankman-Fried’s trial. — Like Bankman-Fried, whose campaign finance charges were dropped, Salame was a “prolific political donor, giving more than $24 million in the 2022 midterm elections,” though Salame’s donations mostly went to Republicans, while Bankman-Fried’s public donations went mainly to Democrats. FINTECH GROUP HIRES NEW GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS CHIEF: The Financial Technology Association, which represents the growing fintech sector, has hired Sarah Mamula from a rival finance trade group to be its head of government affairs. Mamula was most recently with the Bank Policy Institute, where she served as vice president for government affairs. WASHINGTON’S FIGHT TO TAKE ON AI PORN: While there’s widespread agreement in Washington — across the ideological spectrum — “that something should be done to rein in nonconsensual porn generated by AI,” our Mohar Chatterjee reports that “lawmakers have struggled for more than a year to draft a solution, illustrating how ill-equipped Washington is to set limits on rapidly evolving technology with the power to disrupt people’s lives.” — “Legislation has been mired in debate over who should be held accountable for the deepfakes — with tech lobbyists pushing back on any language that would ensnare the platforms that distribute them.” ANNALS OF FUNDRAISING: The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey peels back the curtains on the “series of audacious requests by Trump for big-money contributions in recent months,” which include needling previous donors to up their contributions from six figures to seven and warning that without Trump in the White House to renew tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals, “you’re going to have the biggest tax increase in history.” — “By frequently tying the fundraising requests within seconds of promises of tax cuts, oil project infrastructure approvals and other favorable policies and asking for sums more than his campaign and the GOP can legally accept from an individual, Trump is also testing the boundaries of federal campaign finance laws, according to legal experts.”
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