With Daniel Lippman CENTER-LEFT TECH GROUP PITCHES POLICY FRAMEWORK: Chamber of Progress, the left-leaning Silicon Valley-funded industry group, is branching out from the tech policy space with today’s rollout of a new policy framework aimed at driving down the cost of living in America. — The group, whose partners include Meta, Amazon, Apple and Google, is proposing an emphasis on supply-side policy remedies to bring down costs in five key areas: housing, health care, energy and infrastructure, child care and new technology. — “Obviously, this comes in the midst of election questions over whether and how Silicon Valley will support” Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump, said Chris MacKenzie, a spokesperson for the group. While the Chamber supports Harris, the group hopes to offer “a path forward for the Democratic Party to address voters’ biggest concern in this election” without, he said, “going after leading U.S. companies.” — Asked why a tech industry group believes it could be an effective messenger on the issue for a party that loves to batter big corporations, MacKenzie argued that there’s more ideological alignment on the fundamentals between Democrats and the center-left Chamber than there would be with more traditional, right-leaning business groups, giving the Chamber of Progress a leg to stand on. — The group rolled out endorsements of its policy framework from Democrats across the country, including Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and New Democrats Chair Annie Kuster of New Hampshire. — As part of its cost of living push, the group is backing legislation like the permitting bill from Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), which it says would bring more clean energy projects online. The housing agenda calls for embracing zoning and immigration reforms and slashing red tape and tariffs to juice supply, which MacKenzie contrasted with “some of what the farther left has called for, which has been attacking, say, private equity or specifically landlords for raising the cost of housing.” — Somewhat notably, for a trade group funded by companies fending off antitrust accusations, the Chamber’s policy framework contains several calls for increased antitrust enforcement, particularly around hospital system mergers and in the meat industry. — And while many of the framework’s main areas of focus aren’t inherently tech-related, it does make the case for how increased access to new technologies, like artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles or other climate tech, can bring down certain costs. Happy Thursday and welcome to PI. Hitting up any good fundraisers soon? Switching jobs? Let me know: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. PROSECUTORS LAY OUT NEW HUNTER BIDEN FARA DETAILS: “Hunter Biden was hired by a Romanian businessman accused of corruption who was trying to ‘influence U.S. government policy’ during Joe Biden’s term as vice president, prosecutors said in court papers Wednesday,” per the Associated Press’ Alanna Durkin Richer. — “Special counsel David Weiss’ team said Hunter Biden’s business associate will testify at the upcoming federal tax trial of the president’s son about the arrangement with the executive, Gabriel Popoviciu, who was facing criminal investigation at the time in Romania.” — “Prosecutors say Hunter Biden agreed with his business associate to help Popoviciu fight the criminal charges against him. But prosecutors say they were concerned that ‘lobbying work might cause political ramifications’ for Joe Biden, so the arrangement was structured in a way that ‘concealed the true nature of the work’ for Popoviciu, prosecutors allege.” — “Hunter Biden’s business associate and Popoviciu signed an agreement to make it look like Popoviciu’s payments were for ‘management services to real estate prosperities in Romania.’ However, prosecutors said, ‘That was not actually what G.P. was paying for.’” — “In fact, Popoviciu and Hunter’s business associate agreed that they would be paid for their work to ‘attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to investigate the Romanian investigation,’ prosecutors said. Hunter Biden’s business associate was paid more than $3 million, which was split with Hunter and another business partner, prosecutors say.” FIRST IN PI — TARGETED VICTORIOUS IN AZ COURT BATTLE: Arizona Republican political consultant George Khalaf and his firm the Resolute Group have agreed to pay back $120,000 to Republican consulting firm Targeted Victory after the firm sued them for blocking Mark Brnovich's Senate campaign from paying it for work it had done in the 2022 cycle, Daniel reports. — Last September, Targeted Victory sued Khalaf and Resolute in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona for unpaid invoices of $460,000 and alleged that the defendants, who consulted for Brnovich’s 2022 campaign, had deliberately gotten in the way of the firm getting paid for digital work that it had done for Brnovich’s ultimately unsuccessful primary campaign. The complaint said that Targeted Victory raised $1.4 million for Brnovich. — Targeted Victory said in the lawsuit that Khalaf and his firm “intentionally interfered” with the contract between Targeted Victory and Brnovich’s campaign by ordering Targeted Victory to stop sending invoices to campaign treasurer Red Curve Solutions and to instead direct them to Khalaf. Targeted Victory said that led Brnovich’s campaign to not pay invoices for services rendered and for the debts to not be reported on FEC reports. — “Defendants deliberately withheld Targeted Victory’s invoices from Red Curve while simultaneously approving and submitting to Red Curve for payment the invoices of Resolute, along with Ground Force Action and Data Orbital (two other Khalaf-controlled entities) and Wheatstraw/Radiance Strategies (the firm at which Mr. Khalaf’s then-fiancée worked), which the campaign paid,” the complaint read. — Resolute was paid more than $200,000 by Brnovich’s campaign, while Data Orbital was paid $12,000, according to FEC records. As part of the settlement approved by the court, Khalaf and Resolute said they would pay Targeted Victory $1,000 per month for the next ten years and agreed that they had “improperly caused” the campaign to not pay Targeted Victory. — “The plaintiff made numerous claims that we dispute,” Khalaf told PI in a statement. “Ultimately, one disputed allegation was agreed to in the final settlement. This was a business disagreement and it has been resolved.” A spokesperson for Targeted Victory declined to comment. BRAT SUMMER OR BATT SUMMER?: “A group of electric vehicle battery and materials manufacturers — under the leadership of former Energy Department officials — is launching a new lobbying coalition to angle for additional federal dollars under the Inflation Reduction Act, a move they argue is critical to competing with China,” E&E News’ Hannah Northey and Timothy Cama report. — “The group, dubbed the ‘Battery Advocacy for Technology Transformation,’ or BATT, represents domestic companies or those with U.S. subsidiaries. It's being spearheaded by a group of industry leaders and former Energy Department officials.” — “A top priority in the coming year will be beefing up the amount of incentives companies can secure under portions of the Inflation Reduction Act, including ratcheting up credits for the cost of battery materials and components under the law’s 45X manufacturing production tax credit. One of the 2022 law’s main goals was to move manufacturing of batteries and other clean energy technology to the U.S. and its allies and reduce U.S. dependence on adversaries like China.” — “The group is also poised to push for the passage of a bipartisan bill by Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) and ranking member Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) aimed at boosting diplomatic efforts to secure diverse critical mineral supplies.” WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE: Trump “has repeatedly denied knowing about the Project 2025 policy blueprint or the people behind it. Have no idea who is in charge of it,’ he wrote in a social media post in July. But in April 2022, Trump shared a 45-minute private flight with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts,” The Washington Post’s Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey and Hannah Knowles report, based in part on plane-tracking data and a picture from on board the plane. — Trump and Roberts “flew together to a Heritage conference where Trump delivered a keynote address that gestured to Heritage’s forthcoming policy proposals. ‘They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do,’ Trump said in the speech.” — “Separately, Roberts told The Washington Post in an interview in April of this year that he had previously discussed Project 2025 with Trump as part of offering briefings to all presidential candidates.” — “Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Roberts never briefed Trump. A Heritage spokeswoman declined to elaborate on private meetings.” But “the flight, Trump’s speech and Roberts’ interview cut against the former president’s recent efforts to distance himself from Project 2025 once Democrats turned some of its most controversial proposals into a frequent campaign attack.”
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