Happy Thursday and welcome to PI. You don’t want all that good downtown gossip burning a hole in your pocket over the upcoming holiday weekend. Unburden yourself ahead of time: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. VIRGINIA DEMS SWING BACK AT DCA PERIMETER PUSH: More than a dozen members of Virginia, Maryland and D.C.’s congressional delegations pushed back on Wednesday against the revived effort by their colleagues, airlines and regional business groups to slot more long-haul flights out of Reagan National Airport. — “No Member of Congress appreciates another representative meddling with the assets in their state or district,” the lawmakers, who include Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.), Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) wrote in a letter to House Transportation leaders Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Rick Larsen (D-Wash.). “We, too, strongly oppose any attempts by other Members and special interest groups to dictate operations at these airports for their own personal convenience at great cost to our communities and constituents.” — The perennial lobbying campaign is once again picking up ahead of this year’s FAA reauthorization, and is being spearheaded by the Delta Air Lines-backed Capital Access Alliance. The coalition wants Congress to expand the number of flights that can land or take off from DCA beyond the restricted perimeter of 1,250 miles, arguing the status quo “is making air travel longer and more expensive, while also harmful to businesses and the environment.” — The DMV lawmakers argued that adding new exemptions to or expanding the perimeter, which was put in place decades ago in part to boost Virginia’s Dulles International Airport, could further strain DCA’s resources while undermining federal funding for projects to improve Dulles or compromise safety. “Our priority should be the safety and efficiency of flights, not the personal convenience of a comparatively small number of powerful and well-connected individuals,” they said. FUELS INSTITUTE REBRANDS: Transportation energy think tank Fuels Institute announced today that it has rebranded as the Transportation Energy Institute. The nonprofit was founded a decade ago by the National Association of Convenience Stores and publishes research on transportation fuels and consumers. — The group, which has received funding from the oil and gas industry as well as the convenience store and retail industry and automakers, has since launched an Electric Vehicle Council focused on the transition to electrification. But the head of the institute said in a statement that the rebranding is meant to reflect back the group’s broadened interests. — “The transportation industry itself has evolved and the term ‘fuels’ has come to be viewed by many key stakeholders as not as inclusive as it once was,” executive director John Eichberger said of the term’s association with liquid sources of energy. The name change, he added, aims to “ensure our research is being received as a valuable resource by all decision makers as we continue to evolve and explore new avenues of global initiatives that impact both the consumer and industry objectives.” HOW TO COW THE HOSPITAL LOBBY: “At a waterfront concert in one of this city’s swankiest neighborhoods, rappers Busta Rhymes and Fat Joe interspersed their hits about love, wealth, and wild parties with mini-lectures about hospitals’ high prices. It was a nostalgia-fueled rager — but it was also a not-so-subtle effort by a billionaire to convince Congress and other policymakers to crack down on the commanding sway of the hospital industry,” writes STAT’s Rachel Cohrs. — “The extravagant party … was the brainchild of Cynthia Fisher, a wealthy entrepreneur and political donor. She’s married to Jim Koch, the billionaire founder and chairman of the brewer of Samuel Adams beer. She recruited Fat Joe to the cause — as well as NASCAR great Richard Petty and actress Susan Sarandon.” — “Fisher is one of a small club of wealthy philanthropists using unorthodox tactics — and piles of cash and connections — to mount a campaign to rein in hospital prices. They’re buying Super Bowl ad spots, bringing celebrities to Capitol Hill, bankrolling research at reputable institutions, and financing small advocacy groups across the country.” — The effort appears to be paying off, and it’s got the powerful hospital lobby on notice. “So far this year, key committees in the House of Representatives have held half a dozen hearings examining the community benefits nonprofit hospitals provide, interrogating hospital markets, and considering aggressive legislation that would force hospitals to share their prices and change how they get paid by Medicare.” WHO HOLDS THE KEYS TO AI RULES: “As Congress and the White House struggle to find their way on regulating artificial intelligence, one power base is stepping up,” our Mohar Chatterjee and Brendan Bordelon write: the tech industry itself. — “On Thursday, Microsoft president Brad Smith hosted a high-profile event at Planet Word with a gaggle of D.C. lawmakers to roll out his company’s proposal for how Washington should regulate the fast-moving technology. Two days earlier, Google’s Sundar Pichai published an op-ed about how building AI responsibly was the only race that mattered.” — “The industry efforts come amid a wave of concerns over the rapidly developing technology, with some worrying it could deepen existing societal inequities or, on the extreme end, threaten the future of humanity. With Congress unlikely to move quickly, the White House recently called in the industry’s top CEOs and pushed them to fill in the blanks on what ‘responsible AI’ looks like.” — While some lawmakers appear comfortable with the level of industry involvement in crafting rules to police itself, “the companies shrug off the idea they’re in control: In a conversation with reporters after the event, Smith rejected the notion that Microsoft, its corporate partner OpenAI, or other leading companies are ‘in the driver’s seat’ when it comes to federal AI rules." ANNALS OF THE REVOLVING DOOR: “The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed one of the nation’s largest wholesale drug distributors to keep shipping highly addictive painkillers for nearly four years after a judge recommended it be stripped of its license for its ‘cavalier disregard’ of thousands of suspicious orders fueling the opioid crisis,” according to The Associated Press’ Jim Mustian and Joshua Goodman. — “The DEA did not respond to repeated questions from The Associated Press about its handling of the case against Morris & Dickson Co. or the involvement of a high-profile consultant the company had hired to stave off punishment and who is now DEA Administrator Anne Milgram’s top deputy.” — “But the delay has raised concerns about how the revolving door between government and industry may be impacting the DEA’s mission to police drug companies blamed for tens of thousands of American overdose deaths.”
| 
