FIRST IN PI — WARREN, JAYAPAL SHRED TREASURY IG REPORT: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) laid into a Treasury Department watchdog over the weekend, demanding it retract its recent report probing the revolving door between the department and major accounting firms and conduct its investigation over again. — The inspector general report released in March was first requested by the lawmakers in 2022 following a New York Times report alleging that the frequent flow of personnel between accounting firms and Treasury allowed those firms to effectively shape tax policy in favor of their clients in order to help them avoid bigger tax bills. — But in a letter to acting inspector general Richard Delmar sent Friday night, the lawmakers eviscerated the results of Treasury’s investigation as “a drive-by investigation that appeared to be designed to reach pre-conceived results absolving Treasury officials of wrongdoing despite the obvious evidence of serious revolving door conflicts of interest.” — “It took you over two years to conduct your review — and the result was an irresponsible whitewash that failed to seriously investigate the problem or hold any individual or company accountable,” Warren and Jayapal wrote. — The report determined in part that the number of review stages its tax policies and guidance undergoes before publication insulates the process from undue influence, in effect diluting the threat of a significant conflict of interest — an argument Warren and Jayapal called “absurd” and a failure of “a basic test of logic and common sense.” — The IG’s office “is evaluating the issues and concerns expressed in the letter and will respond to Senator Warren and Representative Jayapal in due course,” A.J. Altemus, the acting general counsel to the inspector general, told PI. WHOOPS: “A far-right activist group that is doxxing college students who engage in pro-Palestinian protests revealed that it is funded by top Republican political donors and nonprofits backed by wealthy business leaders,” per CNBC’s Brian Schwartz. — “The group, Accuracy in Media, publicly disclosed on its federal tax return a list of donors who combined to contribute nearly $1.9 million to the tax-exempt nonprofit between May 2022 and April of last year.” — “The contributors listed on the tax return include billionaire Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, who Accuracy in Media said gave it $1 million,” as well as foundations tied to GOP donors Richard Uihlein, Adam Milstein and Molson Coors’ Peter Coors. — The nonprofit “blamed its accountant when CNBC informed the group that its 2022 federal tax return had been filed with a list of major donors and contribution amounts included,” though it didn’t dispute the tax return’s accuracy. — “But AIM President Adam Guillette told CNBC that Yass had been misidentified, and that he did not give to the organization. Yass’ name and his business address appear on two separate pages of AIM’s 2022 tax return. … ‘Jeff Yass is not an AIM donor and never has been. I think our accounting firm made a major, major error,’ Guillette told CNBC.” SHIFTING WINDS: “In a shift for Washington tech lobbying, companies and investors from across the industry have been pouring tens of millions of dollars into an all-hands effort to block strict safety rules on advanced artificial intelligence and get lawmakers to worry about China instead — and so far, they seem to be winning over once-skeptical members of Congress,” our Brendan Bordelon reports. — “The success of the pro-tech, anti-China AI push, fueled by several new arrivals on the lobbying scene, marks a change from months in which the AI debate was dominated by well-funded philanthropies warning about the long-term dangers of the technology.” — “The new influence web is pushing the argument that AI is less an existential danger than a crucial business opportunity, and arguing that strict safety rules would hand America’s AI edge to China. It has already caused key lawmakers to back off some of their more worried rhetoric about the technology.” K STREET’S MOONSHOT: “An unusual visitor recently pulled into the Department of Transportation’s driveway across the street from the National Mall: a gleaming, 11-foot-tall four-wheeler named FLEX that, if all goes to plan, will soon be carting goods around the moon,” NOTUS’ Maggie Severns writes. — “FLEX had to keep it moving: The rover also stopped at the Department of Commerce, where officials took turns posing for photos and riding the rover, a prototype developed by the space travel company Astrolab.” — “FLEX’s visit was a harbinger of what’s to come: As commercial business on the moon gets close to becoming reality, lobbyists and policymakers are jockeying over who in government will oversee the new space economy and how they’ll do it.” FLYING IN: The Carbon Capture Coalition is gearing up for its second annual fly-in this week, with members representing industry, labor, and environmental and conservation NGOs fanning out across the Hill for meetings with more than 30 different offices. Participants will discuss tax issues like creating parity between tax credit values for reuse and storage projects, and indexing the federal carbon sequestration tax credit for inflation prior to 2027. — Representatives of nearly 400 Catholic hospitals are coming to Washington for a fly-in hosted by the Catholic Health Association of the U.S. They'll be meeting with Capitol Hill offices about issues including strengthening the health care workforce and urging support for maternal health measures, including the bipartisan Preventing Maternal Deaths Reauthorization Act, which recently passed the House, and advocating for the Black Maternal Health Momnibus.
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