TOP CHAMBER MEMBERS AT ODDS WITH LOBBY OVER CLIMATE: “The world's most valuable company quietly rebuked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier this year for hindering its climate goals by opposing national efforts to slow rising temperatures,” but E&E News’ Corbin Hiar and Timothy Cama report that the company, Microsoft, is “one of at least 37 corporate members that are airing concerns about the powerful trade association's climate advocacy.” — “The voluntary disclosures — often made in obscure reports requested by activist shareholders — are seen as a potential first step toward leaving the lobbying group. But some companies that have previously raised concerns with the Chamber, including Microsoft, remain members years afterward.” — “The growing divide between the Chamber and its membership comes amid sharpening scrutiny by lawmakers and investors around the trade association’s efforts to undermine policies that could force businesses to overhaul polluting facilities or build cleaner products.” — “In total, 10 companies on the trade association's 84-member board of directors have reported some level of climate disagreement with the Chamber, the review found,” including Microsoft, Meta, Pfizer and the oil giant Shell. BIG SWIPE FEE NEWS: “Visa, Mastercard and the largest U.S. credit-card issuing banks have agreed to a settlement with merchants that have been suing them for nearly two decades over the fees they charge for swiping credit cards,” per The Wall Street Journal’s Angel Au-Yeung. — “In the deal, the credit-card networks and banks will lower the fees that merchants pay to accept credit cards. … The pact would lower all rates by 0.04 percentage point for three years, and the average rate across the networks would be lowered by 0.07 percentage point for five years.” — It would also eliminate anti-steering rules for retailers and enable smaller retailers to negotiate swipe fees as groups, which lawyers who negotiated the deal on behalf of merchants said would result in almost $30 billion in savings over five years. — Opponents of the Credit Card Competition Act, the bipartisan bill aimed at diluting Visa and Mastercard’s dominance of the credit card market, rushed to argue that today’s settlement, which still requires judicial approval, negates the need for lawmakers to act. — Richard Hunt, the head of the Electronic Payments Coalition representing banks and credit card companies, applauded the settlement for coming together “without government mandates,” adding in a statement that the deal provides retailers with “a host of other technical benefits that could have never been reached with legislation drafted by individuals who simply do not understand the intricacies of our global payment networks.” — EPC also blasted out a graphic favorably comparing the settlement to the swipe fee legislation from Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). Durbin and the bill’s supporters, on the other hand, sought to tamp down talk of the bill being made obsolete. — “This settlement is a bad deal for merchants,” argued Christopher Jones, a lobbyist for the National Grocers Association and a leader at the Merchants Payments Coalition. In a statement, Jones maintained that the settlement would provide “a few years of very small relief followed by business as usual,” arguing that “Congress needs to act so that we will have real reform that will benefit merchants and their customers.” — Durbin echoed that rhetoric, writing in a post on X that “today’s news solidifies that it is time to pass” the swipe fee bill. SEXUAL ASSAULT LAWSUIT AGAINST SCHLAPP DROPPED: "The Republican operative who accused the American Conservative Union head Matt Schlapp of sexual assault has dropped his lawsuits against him and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, according to statements from the main parties," per Daniel. — "Soon after the 2022 Herschel Walker Senate campaign, Carlton Huffman — a staffer working for that campaign — accused Schlapp of sexual battery and defamation. In a lawsuit, he sought $9.4 million in damages. But in a statement on Tuesday, Huffman said he was discontinuing his lawsuits and issued an apology for bringing them." THE STATE OF THE GLOBAL BATTLE TO REGULATE AI: “For the past year, a political fight has been raging around the world, mostly in the shadows, over how — and whether — to control AI,” our colleagues Mark Scott, Gian Volpicelli, Mohar Chatterjee, Vincent Manancourt, Clothilde Goujard and Brendan Bordelon report in a behind-the-scenes look at the haggling between world powers, which thus far hasn’t yielded any unified progress. — The stakes, they write, are high: “Whoever wins will cement their dominance over Western rules for an era-defining technology. Once these rules are set, they will be almost impossible to rewrite. … If liberal industrialized economies fail to reach a common regime among themselves, China may step in to set the global rulebook for a technology that — in a doomsday scenario — some fear has the potential to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth.” — Meanwhile, Brendan writes that a new benefactor with ties to the crypto industry has emerged on the scene to fund the latest nonprofit group seeking to shape AI regulations. In May 2021, the Future of Life Institute, which has only around two dozen staffers in the U.S. and Europe, reported receiving “a donation of Shiba Inu cryptocurrency worth $665 million from crypto mogul Vitalik Buterin (a massive haul of the volatile ‘memecoin,’ named after a Japanese dog breed, was apparently gifted to Buterin days earlier),” per Brendan. — “Tax documents provided by FLI show it had just $2.4 million at the start of that year. Now its assets dwarf those amassed by not just most other AI groups, but many high-profile policy organizations.” — “In the AI world, the Future of Life Institute is best known for last year’s viral letter calling for a ‘pause’ in advanced AI research. The letter carried signatures from tech luminaries like Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and catalyzed debate in Washington, London and elsewhere about AI’s potential threat. … Existential risk groups already enjoy considerable clout and backing from a handful of tech billionaires, and critics fear a massive infusion of FLI cash into that ecosystem could skew the debate even further.” TELEHEALTH EFFORT BRINGS ON MLINAR: Alye Mlinar, a former senior GOP health staffer, was named executive director at Telehealth Access for America, Megan reports. In the role, she'll guide the group's campaign to make permanent the pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities, which expire at the end of the year unless Congress acts. — Mlinar, who will not lobby for the group, also works as a principal at top lobbying firm Mehlman Consulting. Telehealth Access for America is supported by more than two dozen groups, including AARP, the American Heart Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges and Teladoc Health. ANOTHER GREEN GROUP FACES LAYOFFS: Our Zack Colman reports that the Environmental Defense Fund will begin to lay off an undisclosed number of staffers this week, making EDF “the latest green organization to announce layoffs amid downturns in donations, following the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council.” — “Revenue from memberships and donations plummeted last year to $181.5 million, down from $240 million in fiscal 2022, according to EDF’s annual financial report for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2023. Memberships and donations accounted for 71 percent of its $255 million in revenue last fiscal year.”
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