WILLIAMS & JENSEN LOBBYIST HEADS TO ACLI: Marti Thomas has joined the American Council of Life Insurers as vice president for taxation, trade and international issues. Thomas, a longtime aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, was most recently a principal at Williams & Jensen, where she lobbied for clients including Pfizer, the Vanguard Group, Ripple Labs and the Reinsurance Association of America. She's also a Bockorny Group, Gephardt Government Affairs and Treasury alum. APPLE'S GREEN CREDS CHALLENGED BY TRADE GROUP MEMBERSHIPS: "In 2009, Apple Inc. quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to protest the trade association's opposition to federal climate regulations. But a few years later, the consumer tech company that Forbes once called the world's 'most sustainable' joined the U.S. Chamber's Texas affiliate, which continues to fight climate action," E&E News' Corbin Hiar reports. — "Apple's ties to the Texas Association of Business are detailed in a new report provided to E&E News by the Campaign for Accountability 's Tech Transparency Project. 'By supporting TAB, Apple has associated itself with climate views that undermine its public image as an environmental champion,' the watchdog group wrote in the report released today." — "The report also highlights Apple's involvement with business groups in Europe and Japan that fought climate regulations; its membership in trade associations that oppose legislation to make electronic devices easier to repair; and its leading role at the Business Roundtable , which helped kill the 'Build Back Better' climate spending bill. The findings are based on Apple's 2020 list of trade association memberships, the most recent one that's publicly available. TAB and Apple didn't respond to requests for comment." — "TAB's energy advocacy efforts appear to clash with Apple's stated climate commitments. The company says its global corporate operations have been carbon neutral since 2020, and it aims for its products to reach net-zero emissions by the end of the decade. Apple CEO Tim Cook has also said companies 'have a responsibility to lead on climate and sustainability.'" — "But Apple's dealings with the U.S. Chamber and its Texas affiliate reveal an inconsistent commitment to addressing climate change, said Luke Metzger, the executive director of Environment Texas." ZINKE PAC FACES SPENDING QUESTIONS: A fundraising group run by Ryan Zinke, the former congressman and Interior secretary dogged by ethics scandals, has raised millions of dollars — mostly from small donors — ostensibly to help elect Republican military veterans. "But the reality is different," Roll Call's John Donnelly writes. — "A CQ Roll Call analysis has found that nearly a quarter of the 129 candidates who have gotten SEAL PAC money so far in the 2022 election cycle never served in the U.S. military. Nearly all of those nonveterans are GOP members of the House and Senate, a group that largely supports former President Donald Trump." — "SEAL PAC's ads all strongly suggest the group raises money solely for Republicans who are military veterans. The group's 'mission,' its website says, is 'electing conservative veterans.' The site depicts numerous SEAL PAC-backed candidates — with military service affiliations noted for each and every one." — "If SEAL PAC is using the U.S. military's positive public image as bait to secure donations for not just veterans but also entrenched nonveteran politicians, that is not the only ethical question that has arisen about the group. Concerns have also come up about how little money the group spends on candidates at all, as opposed to 'operating expenditures.' And both Zinke and SEAL PAC's executive director, Rob Catron, have been ensnared in allegations of wrongdoing." WARNER HUDDLES WITH CHIPMAKERS: More than a dozen CEOs and senior executives from the microchip industry are set to meet with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) today to discuss the industry's priorities as lawmakers work to hash out the differences between the House and Senate's China competitiveness bills, Brendan Bordelon reported this morning in Morning Tech. — The Silicon Valley confab was being organized by the Semiconductor Industry Association , whose members include top chipmakers and which has pushed relentlessly for federal assistance in addressing a global chip shortage. While the meeting will undoubtedly touch on the $52 billion in manufacturing and research subsidies for the industry that is the centerpiece of both China bills, the trade group is also "eager to discuss shoehorning into the final package a 25-percent microchip investment tax credit," Brandon reports. — "Congressional leadership has so far resisted pressure from the industry's friends on the Hill to include those credits in conference, citing worries that a new tax title would make it even harder to reconcile the sprawling bills." — Warner, whose state is home to a large Micron factory, is a co-sponsor of the FABS Act, which would give chip companies a 25 percent tax credit to build manufacturing facilities in the U.S. But "Warner was noncommittal when asked in March about the need for a chip tax credit in the final competitiveness bill. At a May 12 conference meeting, Warner did suggest a tax title was needed — but, he added, lawmakers 'may have to wrestle with this a little bit.'" MINE SAFETY COMMISSION HIT WITH ETHICS ACCUSATIONS: "A Republican commissioner on a federal mine safety agency sought advice on personnel matters from a closely held collection of outside advisers that appears to have included at least one coal industry executive," according to documents obtained by POLITICO's Matthew Choi. — "The revelations prompted the commission's Democratic chair to request a review by an outside inspector general, alleging what appeared to be a violation of federal ethics rules. The disclosures come as the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent agency, is mired in partisan infighting among its members and numerous other allegations of financial malfeasance that have attracted the attention of federal investigators."
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