Wellness execs pitch their industry to address chronic disease

Jun 27, 2024

Presented by

With Daniel Lippman

FIRST IN PI — WELLNESS EXECS PARTNER UP ON CHRONIC DISEASE: Executives from more than a dozen top wellness and fitness companies are launching a new coalition aimed at reframing the way chronic diseases are addressed in public policy — by pitching policies that would financially benefit its members, Caitlin reports.

— End Chronic Disease includes the heads of companies like Sweetgreen, CrossFit, Bloom Nutrition, Thrive Market, AG1 and more, and is led by Calley Means, a co-founder of the company TrueMed, which helps people obtain medical letters of necessity to spend pre-tax FSA and HSA dollars on things like fitness memberships, dietary supplements and meal plans.

— The fitness industry long lobbied for allowing people to use pre-tax medical accounts to pay for fitness-related expenses and has been joined more recently by pro sports leagues, though the effort has had little success. (The IRS has recently begun cracking down on the use of pre-tax health dollars on services like Means’ company advocates.)

— In an interview, Means said the coalition will deploy insight he gleaned as a former consultant for the food and pharmaceuticals industries to co-opt their lobbying strategies in fighting things like soda taxes and nutrition standards and try to shift policy toward a different set of health care and nutrition incentives — ones that would boost the bottom lines of the companies helping fund the new coalition.

— The coalition “will not be lecturing people about marginal nutrition policy,” Means told PI. “We are advocating aggressively about how the American people are being decimated because they're being slotted into a one-size-fits-all health care system that's poisoning them and then drugging them, instead of asking how they can actually reverse their metabolic dysfunction that's causing their chronic disease.”

— End Chronic Disease has already been “aggressively” drafting bills and executive orders, and Means said the group has done outreach to the Biden administration and Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaigns.

Happy Thursday, and welcome to PI. My name is Hailey Fuchs, and I’m helming the newsletter today while Caitlin is away. My colleague Brendan Bordelon will take over tomorrow. Send us tips at hfuchs@politico.com and bbordelon@politico.com, and follow us on X @Hailey_Fuchs and @BrendanBordelon. And enjoy the presidential debate!

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K STREET ON SCREEN: A former Obama administration official has written a screenplay about K Street that is poised to make its way to Hollywood, Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. reports.

— “Pilot script was written by Pat Cunnane, President Obama’s former longtime aide at the White House. The drama is an ongoing workplace drama set in the world of political lobbyists in DC. The script is witty and charming, and a comp might be The Bear, trading food for politics. The winning bidders will put this together very quickly,” Fleming writes.

— “The premise: Ben Carter can pinpoint what anyone will sell their soul for, something that serves him well when he mysteriously turns up at a lobbying firm on Washington’s K Street. The firm is known for its heady clients, strong-arm tactics, and the revolving door between their office lobby and the halls of the Capitol. As Carter falls for his boss, the question becomes: Will Ben take down the system or get sucked into it?”

FIRST IN PI — COURTOVICH ENDING FEUD WITH SAUDI INVESTORS: Lobbyist Jim Courtovich has agreed to settle a lawsuit with an investment holding company backed by wealthy Saudi investors, which had sued him over allegations of breach of contract and fraud, Daniel reports. An LLC called Woodland Drive, funded by the Al Gosaibi family, alleged that Courtovich hadn’t paid back any of a $4 million loan that the LLC had given to him to purchase a Capitol Hill townhouse and invest in his K Street firm SGR LLC Government Relations and Lobbying.

— The Saudi-backed company said Courtovich had used some of their money instead for personal expenses, including paying back taxes to D.C. and the IRS, and had refused to provide them with financial statements. Woodland Drive also alleged that Courtovich signed an agreement promising to pledge the “Hill House” to the company as collateral for the loan, but instead mortgaged it to a bank and used the proceeds for his own purposes.

— Courtovich told PI he had settled but declined to discuss the terms, except to say he is “living up to our contractual obligation” and remains on good terms with family member Saud Al Gosaibi, who he recently had lunch with.

— A representative of Woodland Drive LLC also confirmed that the parties recently signed a settlement agreement, adding: “The agreement includes a confession of judgment signed by Jim. He has not yet made any payment required by the settlement and therefore the lawsuit remains pending on the court docket. The company is hopeful that Jim will satisfy the obligations he agreed to in the settlement.”

— Courtovich also recently put up for sale that Capitol Hill house for $2.9 million and said that he hadn’t even been there for seven years.

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CAMPAIGN FINANCE FAUX PAS?: “A California Democrat vying to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom may have run afoul of state law by sending thousands of campaign dollars to a company owned by her spouse,” my colleague Christopher Cadelago reports.

— ”Toni Atkins, the powerful former legislative leader from San Diego, paid $22,500 to the Global Policy Leadership Academy, where her longtime spouse, Jennifer LeSar, is the firm’s chief executive officer and its sole shareholder, disclosures reviewed by POLITICO show. Atkins described the money as going toward a trip to Vienna, Austria, in 2022.”

— “California law bars officeholders from using campaign funds for personal reasons such as giving to a spouse or domestic partner, experts said. The Global Policy Leadership Academy is part of a portfolio of affordable housing and economic development companies owned by LeSar.”

BARR’S NEXT ACT: Bill Barr, former attorney general during the Trump administration, is now an adviser to military drone maker Dzyne, Axios’ Hope King and Colin Demarest report.

— “Along with Barr, Dzyne has attracted Chris Miller, a former acting secretary of defense, to serve as chief strategy officer; Marshall Billingslea, a former special presidential envoy for arms control, as a special adviser; and Joe Francescon, a counterterrorism expert previously on the National Security Council and a former deputy chief of staff at the Defense Department, as chief of government affairs,” King and Demarest write.

KAPLAN LEAVES HER FIRM: Leading civil rights attorney Roberta A. Kaplan, who represented writer E. Jean Carroll against former President Donald Trump, is leaving the firm she founded, the New York Times’ Katie J. M. Baker and David Enrich report. The Times noted that Kaplan was “clashing with her partners over her treatment of colleagues.”

— “Ms. Kaplan, a hard-charging civil rights lawyer, announced that she was leaving the firm, Kaplan Hecker & Fink, which she formed in 2017, to start a new one.”

— ”Her departure followed months of internal frustration over Ms. Kaplan’s conduct toward other lawyers, according to people familiar with the matter. Those concerns led her colleagues to remove her from the firm’s management committee and precipitated her departure.”

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JOBS REPORT

— Shannon Powers is joining Laurel Strategies as senior vice president. She was previously at kglobal.

— John Mercurio and Greg Saphier are now co-leading the Motion Picture Association’s Communications & Public Affairs division.

— Adam Farris is joining Toyota as director of international trade and supply chains. He was previously chief of staff for Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.).

— Jason Noble has been named director for public affairs and earned media at Bryson Gillette. He previously was comms director for the Iowa Senate Democratic caucus and has worked for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jason Kander and Des Moines Register.

— Michael Drayne has joined The Housing Policy Council as a senior vice president for capital markets, Morning Money reports. He was previously a senior vice president at Ginnie Mae.

— Daniela Colucci is joining the Institute of International Bankers as events marketing and planning manager. She previously worked for the Managed Funds Association.

— Catherine Chiu is joining The Asia Group’s Taiwan practice as a senior associate.

— Jessica Harris is joining the American Institutes for Research as director of communications for the AIR Equity Initiative. She previously was director of strategic communications at The Brookings Institution.

— Erin Schmidt has founded Lilypad Strategies as its CEO. She previously was a senior manager at Google and senior vice president at Schmidt Public Affairs.

NEW JOINT FUNDRAISERS

None

NEW PACS

Hims & Hers Health, Inc. PAC (PAC)

Together for Nevada’s Future PAC (Super PAC)

Urban Progress Leadership PAC (Leadership PAC: Rep. Danny Davis)

NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP: Grand Canyon University

American Capitol Group: The Bennett Group DC On Behalf Of Enxnor Bioenergy

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP: First Step Homes

Stanton Park Group: National Mining Association

NEW LOBBYING TERMINATIONS

Skyline Capitol LLC: Vista Outdoor Operations LLC

Summit Strategies Government Affairs LLC: City Of Tukwila (WA)

Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC: Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC

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