With Daniel Lippman NEW BUSINESS: Conceivable Life Sciences, a startup focused on automating in vitro fertilization, has hired federal lobbyists for the first time. The startup retained Invariant last month to lobby policymakers on issues related to fertility and IVF, according to a newly filed disclosure. Of the five lobbyists listed as working on the account, all but one previously worked for Republican members of Congress. — IVF, of course, has emerged as one of the latest flashpoints in the fight over reproductive health care since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, but the issue has exposed divisions among conservatives. — This week, the RNC approved a new policy platform that, while declaring support for fertility treatments like IVF, also includes language that could endanger the practice. In June, House Republicans jettisoned a proposed anti-IVF amendment to a defense funding bill, while Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill to preserve access to the practice and anti-abortion Southern Baptists formally renounced IVF. — Meanwhile, Talkiatry Management Services, a telehealth startup offering virtual psychiatry services, has brought on James Sauls of Cassidy & Associates to represent the company on the Hill. — Sauls was most recently chief of staff to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and will lobby the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Finance committees as well as the White House, DOJ and the Drug Enforcement Administration on behalf of the company, as policymakers decide how the post-pandemic regulatory landscape should look for telemedicine. — Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad, an expat advocacy group pushing for an end to citizen-based taxation, has hired Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck ahead of next year’s big tax fight. Mark Warren, a longtime congressional tax staffer, will work on the account with former Nancy Pelosi chief of staff Nadeam Elshami, according to a disclosure. — And consumer goods behemoth Procter & Gamble has hired FTI Government Affairs. FTI’s Mickeala Carter, Bryan Zumwalt, Russ Kelley, Ian Whitson and Ruby Gordon are working on sustainability issues — especially policy related to manufacturing — for the conglomerate. P&G retains just four other outside lobbying firms: Mehlman Consulting, FGS Global, the Mattingley Group and the Washington Tax & Public Policy Group. Happy Wednesday and welcome to PI. Do you or a client have anything going on for the RNC next week? Fill us in on your plans: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. ALL’S FAIR IN LAWFARE: “The Middle East Institute is a 78-year-old, nonpartisan Washington think tank with a mission of increasing American understanding of the region. Since its founding in 1946, the organization has been a part of the capital’s foreign affairs firmament, led by distinguished former ambassadors and funded by publicly traded companies, A-list law firms and oil-rich governments.” — That’s why, our Michael Schaffer writes, “last month’s legal settlement between the organization and the Department of Justice looks at first blush like a cut-and-dried bookkeeping matter rather than an example of 21st-century political warfare infecting the formerly staid world of Beltway policy shops.” — “But behind the scenes, the settlement is a pretty good case study of the ugly ways America’s ideological divides — in this case, over Israel and Palestine — play out in courtroom warfare involving placid institutions that aren’t accustomed to taking part in blood sport.” BUSINESS GROUPS PUSH FOR HANDCUFFS ON NLRB: The business community is cheering on Republican appropriators for including language in their bill to fund the Labor Department that would effectively block federal labor cops from enforcing the Biden administration’s much-reviled joint employer rule. — The Labor-HHS-Education spending bill unveiled ahead of today’s marathon House Appropriations markup includes a provision that bars taxpayer funding from being used to implement or enforce the National Labor Relations Board’s joint employer rule, which is currently held up in litigation brought by the business community. — “The joint employer provision in the FY25 LHHS Appropriations Act will prevent implementation of the NLRB's onerous rule and protect small businesses and jobs across the country,” a coalition of 15 trade groups wrote in a letter Tuesday to House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). — A second business alliance, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, echoed that praise in a letter of its own to the whole House, writing that language targeting the joint employer rule as well as one other NLRB regulation would make progress toward “reining in the agency and realigning its actions with its intended mission.” — CDW Chair Kristen Swearingen, whose group represents trade associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Business and the International Franchise Association, also singled out a rider that would bar funding from being used to implement electronic voting in union elections. PHONE A FRIEND: “President Joe Biden met Wednesday with the executive council of the AFL-CIO, America’s largest federation of trade unions, in an effort to shore up support from a critical constituency as he beats back continued calls to step aside in the 2024 campaign,” the Associated Press’ Josh Boak reports. — “‘I think of you as my domestic NATO — not a joke,’ the 81-year-old Democrat told the crowd gathered at headquarters. He extolled the power of unions and told them of his longstanding support for them, telling the crowd even Wall Street was acknowledging the power of unions, as he once again articulated his vision for an economy built ‘from the bottom up and middle out.’” — “The AFL-CIO said the president has been booked to attend the meeting for more than a year, but his participation now involves much higher scrutiny after his weak debate performance against Donald Trump raised fears about his ability to compete in November’s election. His sit-down with union officials also overlaps with the NATO summit in Washington, where Biden is navigating geopolitics with other world leaders.” FIRST IN PI — FGS AMENDS WUXI FILING: FGS Global filed a new lobbying disclosure on Tuesday to reflect the foreign ownership of one of its clients, the biotech company WuXi Biologics USA, Daniel reports. — On a September 2023 lobbying registration for the company, FGS marked “no” on the section asking whether any foreign entities were major contributors to the client’s lobbying activities or played a key role in supervising or controlling those lobbying activities. But on an April 1 registration for its in-house lobbying team, WuXi listed six foreign entities in the same section, five of which are based in China. — In its second quarter lobbying report filed Tuesday, after PI asked FGS about the discrepancy, amended its response to “yes” on the foreign entity question. An FGS official noted that it listed its client’s Chinese address on the initial filing and said in an email that the amended LDA filing “reflects our current scope of work and is aligned with our client’s recent LDA registration.” FGS is paid $40,000 per quarter by WuXi and listed three former Congressional staffers working on the account: Brett O’Brien, Kerry O’Brien and Adam Goldstein. — WuXi Bio, along with several other Chinese biotech firms, could effectively be banned from doing business in the U.S. if the BIOSECURE Act passes Congress later this year; its lead sponsor, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), intends to make a major push for a floor vote at some point before the end of the session. A WuXi representative didn’t respond to a request for comment. SPOTTED last night at Whole Foods Navy Yard for the grocery chain’s first-ever “Supplier Showcase,” which was followed by a reception featuring food catered by D.C. chef Spike Mendelsohn, per a tipster: Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Jason Buechel, Stephanie Chen Ferragut, Ann Marie Hourigan, Nicole Davia and Jori Fine of Whole Foods; and Matt McAlvanah and Mike Glymph of Monument Advocacy.
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