With Daniel Lippman FARA UNIT’S EARS ARE BURNING: Letters are flying on the Hill this week with accusations of potential illicit foreign influence campaigns, in the latest signals of FARA’s continued potency around town. — Earlier today, new House Select Committee on China Chair John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland to demand an investigation into whether the Drone Advocacy Alliance, an industry coalition sponsored by the Chinese drone maker DJI Technologies, might be required to register as a foreign agent. — Stefanik is the lead sponsor of a pair of bills targeting Chinese drones like DJI’s, which dominate the drone marketplace. One would block Chinese drones from being able to run on FCC infrastructure — effectively putting the kibosh on new sales in the U.S. — while another would impose a new tariff on Chinese drones whose revenues would be funneled toward a grant program to help first responders purchase drones from a different manufacturer. — The Drone Advocacy Alliance, which describes itself as a “non-partisan, drone-agnostic grassroots advocacy coalition” also notes that it is sponsored by and its website maintained by DJI. The group urges drone enthusiasts to express their opposition to Stefanik’s bills alongside a memo touting DJI’s “operational security.” — “The Drone Advocacy Alliance is facilitating a CCP-led disinformation and propaganda campaign targeting Americans — activity that meets the threshold of political activities as defined under FARA statute and regulations,” Stefanik and Moolenaar argued in their letter to Garland. — They pointed to DJI’s presence on Treasury and Defense Department entity lists of companies linked to the Chinese military-industrial complex, calling for Garland to review the coalition’s FARA obligations and whether the group is subject to any of the statute’s exemptions. — The lawmakers’ letter came days after a separate group of House members — this time Democrats — urged the chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee to examine whether a handful of foreign mining companies or a trade group representing them are “exploiting loopholes” in FARA “that allow them to evade serious scrutiny of their work on behalf of foreign principals.” — In a letter to ENR Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) on Monday, Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) and Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) accused four major mining companies with varying degrees of foreign ownership of taking advantage of FARA’s exemptions for commercial activity and registrants under the more opaque LDA, or else utilizing membership National Mining Association while in some cases “lobbying to influence U.S. law and policy with implications beyond the immediate impact of their U.S.-based project(s).” — The Democrats’ appeal comes amid a fight over House-passed legislation loosening restrictions on where mining companies could dispose of waste, which Democrats have said could boost foreign mining companies operating on federal lands. — “The very foundation of our work is to advocate for strong U.S. supply chains using mined-in-America materials that create high-paying domestic jobs in support of our economy,” NMA spokesperson Ashley Burke said in a statement. “To suggest otherwise simply isn’t credible.” Happy Wednesday and welcome to PI. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on the platform formerly known as Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. FIRST IN PI — HOUSE OVERSIGHT STAFFER HEADS TO K STREET: Catherine Potter has left the Hill, where she served for the last two years as an attorney for the House Oversight Committee under Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), to join VENTURE Government Strategies (formerly known as Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures) as a director. — As counsel for the committee, Potter played a hand in helping launch investigations, conducting research and managing hearings, among other things — insight she’ll now parlay into helping the firm’s clients navigate investigations on the Hill. — VENTURE is the only firm in town registered to lobby for LIV Golf, and other clients include Shein, the U.S. Travel Association, Altria, Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, United Launch Alliance and Spirit AeroSystems, the Boeing supplier that made the door plug that blew off a midair Alaska Airlines flight earlier this year. — Potter does plan on registering to lobby and told PI she plans on working on a range of different issues. “Oversight is a unique committee with a broad reach into many different sectors,” she noted, adding that the role required quickly becoming well-versed in a number of new issues. HOT ON THE HILL: PRESIDENTIAL FINANCES: “A bipartisan pair of influential lawmakers proposed new rules forcing presidents to make their tax returns public and mandating that family members reveal more financial information, but the measure drew opposition from the White House,” The Wall Street Journal’s Natalie Andrews reports. — Comer and liberal California Democratic Rep. Katie Porter “introduced a bill on Wednesday that would force presidents and vice presidents to disclose their tax filings for the two years before entering the White House, for the years while in office, and for two years afterward. It would also compel them, along with close family members such as children, siblings and in-laws, to disclose payments from foreign entities as well as large gifts and loans from family members.” — But “other Democrats raised objections to the proposal as word of it circulated, seeing it as unfairly equating the business conflicts of the Trumps and Bidens,” and the White House said it opposed the bill. Meanwhile, another group of Democrats introduced a proposal that would require congressional approval to allow a president to receive payments from a foreign government. ONE TO WATCH: “A decade-long conservative crusade against financial regulators will come to a head soon with a crucial Supreme Court ruling, part of a legal strategy that has spread across multiple Washington agencies into a broad attack on a core power of the federal government,” our Declan Harty, Josh Sisco and Josh Gerstein report. — “Driven by an alliance of tech billionaires, conservative legal activists and the business lobby, the legal campaign that has arisen around Jarkesy is a little-appreciated but significant version of the ‘war on the administrative state’ that Donald Trump promised but largely failed to deliver.” — The case has inspired several copycats, with companies including Meta, SpaceX and Amazon since escalating it “into a broader fight against federal power by suing other agencies over their own courts — a way of fighting unfavorable judgments by attacking the system that delivered it.” FIRST IN PI — MORE LAYOFFS DOWNTOWN: LSG, the strategic communications and public affairs firm, recently laid off eight employees as part of a restructuring so it could focus more on corporate communications, four people familiar with the matter told Daniel. — Those laid off included employees at all levels working in a variety of roles, including communications, public affairs and research. One laid-off employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the move was a surprise to most people. Employees affected got an extension of their health insurance and at least a month’s severance, although they had to sign a non-disparagement agreement to get the money. — Founding partner David Barnhart told the remaining 40 employees in an internal email obtained by PI that LSG — which started 15 years ago and initially focused on grassroots and grasstops advocacy — made the decision not because of financial concerns and that “LSG is on strong financial footing,” a phrase he bolded in his email. “Our goal is to put in place a structure that supports our growth together as a team,” he wrote, adding that layoffs were a “difficult decision.” — In a statement to PI, he added: “After our best year in 2023, LSG decided to restructure to best support our clients evolving needs and our continued growth.” According to the firm’s website, LSG has included ExxonMobil, Chevron, Google, Anheuser-Busch and Comcast. Last year the firm signed a 12-year lease for more than 20,000 square feet at The Herald building in downtown Washington, which used to house the former Washington Herald Examiner newspaper. — Kunal Khosla, a senior director at LSG, last week posted on LinkedIn that the firm was hiring for 11 roles, and in April, LSG announced its hiring of a new partner, chief communications and brand officer. FLYING IN: The Association of Dental Support Organizations wrapped up its fly-in today, with plans to meet with over 30 offices on the Hill about workforce challenges in the dental industry and Medicaid coverage. — And more than 135 members of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association were on the Hill, where they were scheduled to meet with roughly 160 House and Senate offices to highlight the equipment leasing and finance industry’s role in driving capital and investment, and touch on tax and financial services issues. — The Society of Thoracic Surgeons was also on the Hill to lobby for automatic annual inflation updates for Medicare payments in the physician fee schedule, permanent telehealth permissions, banning noncompete agreements and more. — Also flying in this week were the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, which brought nearly 500 attendees to the Hill for more than 330 meetings with lawmakers and their staff; and the board of Autos Drive America, which flew in representatives from BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo to meet with Biden administration officials and policy experts. SPOTTED last night at the Consumer Technology Association’s 100th-anniversary celebration at CTA’s townhouse, per a tipster: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Gary Shapiro, Kinsey Fabrizio, Glenda MacMullin, Michael Petricone, Tiffany Moore, Brian Markwalter and Melissa Harrison of CTA.
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