With Daniel Lippman HOUSE NDAA WOULD SQUEEZE CONTRACTORS’ LOBBYISTS: The defense authorization bill cleared by the House Armed Services Committee yesterday includes language aimed at pressuring lobbying firms to choose between working for Pentagon contractors or companies with ties to the Chinese military. — An amendment from Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) included in one of Rep. Mike Rogers’ (R-Mich.) chairman’s marks would prohibit the Pentagon from entering into any contracts with a company if the company retains a lobbying firm also working for entities on the Pentagon’s so-called 1260H entity list. HASC sent their version of the NDAA to the House floor in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 57-1, per our friends over at Morning Defense. — “It is reprehensible that American lobbying firms are advocating on behalf of companies that directly advance the modernization efforts of the Chinese military,” Stefanik said in a statement. “If a lobbying firm chooses to represent a Chinese Military Company then they should be barred from representing any companies that contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.” — The language is similar to a proposal introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) earlier this year. Rubio’s bill is broader, though, requiring that prospective defense contractors certify they don’t retain any lobbying firms simultaneously working for an entity sanctioned under a Treasury list of companies linked to China’s military-industrial complex, several Commerce Department blacklists or the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. — While Rubio’s bill would take effect 30 days after being signed into law, Stefanik’s amendment wouldn’t go into effect until the middle of 2026 — if it passes the House and survives the conference process with the Senate. — Craig Singleton, a senior China fellow at the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies, applauded the amendment’s inclusion, telling PI that it “sends a clear message: Lobbying firms must weigh the risks and rewards of representing Chinese military companies, knowing it could cost them lucrative contracts with the Defense Department." — It’s the latest effort by members to crack down on K Street firms cashing in on lucrative contracts with companies facing scrutiny over their ties to the Chinese government, following this year’s threats to blacklist those firms from meeting with certain offices. — It also follows a Senate committee’s vote last week to advance a bill to block the Pentagon and other federal agencies from hiring consulting firms like McKinsey & Co. that work for both the U.S. government and Chinese and adversarial government-linked entities. Happy Thursday and welcome to PI. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on the platform formerly known as Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK: “The crypto industry won several eye-catching victories this month that showcased its growing influence on the levers of power in Washington — something that’s poised to expand as it prepares to spend more than $80 million on the 2024 elections,” our Jasper Goodman and Eleanor Mueller write — despite a widespread decline in the number of cryptocurrency users. — “Crypto-friendly legislation moving through Congress in the last two weeks drew a surprising level of bipartisan support,” in part thanks to nudges from major Democratic donors in Silicon Valley like venture capitalist Ron Conway and the looming threat of crypto super PACs’ massive war chests. — The most glaring example was the House’s 279-136 vote on legislation “that would create a regulatory regime tailored for crypto the first time either chamber of Congress has taken such a step. A stunning 71 Democrats supported the GOP-led legislation, including [former House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi, Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark.” — The moment, which House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a crypto ally, labeled a “high watermark” for the sector, marks “the culmination of a yearslong effort to win legitimacy — and lighter-touch regulatory treatment — in Washington” that at times seemed to have been derailed by a dizzying number of scandals within the crypto industry. THAT WAS QUICK: “Steve Kramer, the political consultant who admitted to NBC News that he was behind a robocall impersonating Joe Biden's voice, has been indicted in New Hampshire and fined $6 million by the Federal Communications Commission,” per NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald. — “In separate announcements Thursday, New Hampshire's attorney general charged Kramer with 26 counts, while the FCC fined him $6 million for ‘scam calls he set up to defraud voters’ in violation of a federal Caller ID law.” — “The charges include 13 felony counts of voter suppression and 13 misdemeanor counts of impersonation of a candidate, based on 13 New Hampshire voters who received the calls. The FCC also fined a telecom company allegedly involved in the call an additional $2 million on Thursday.” BIDEN PULLS CUNNINGHAM NOM: “The White House has decided to pull the nomination of Nelson Cunningham to be a deputy U.S trade representative after he ran into opposition from Democrats in the Senate,” per our Doug Palmer. — Instead, Cunningham, a former Biden aide and Clinton administration alum who co-founded the consulting and lobbying firm McLarty Inbound, is joining the State Department as a senior adviser to Jose Fernandez, the undersecretary of State for economic growth, energy, and the environment, according to the department. — Cunningham’s nomination faced skepticism from key Democrats like Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown (Ohio), who raised concerns about Cunningham's corporate advising work at McLarty, and whether that aligned with a "worker-focused" trade policy. FIRST IN PI: The international president of the American Federation of Musicians is speaking up after the recent OpenAI-Scarlett Johansson controversy to argue that Congress should act to protect professional speech performers from the harm AI could wreak on their livelihoods, Daniel reports. — AI is one of the top issues the union has been working on in Washington and in recent contract negotiations with music labels — not unlike Hollywood’s primary labor organization SAG-AFTRA and the National Association of Voice Actors, which represents actors who lend their voices to animated characters, video games, commercials and audiobooks. — The “misuse of Scarlett Johansson’s voice by OpenAI raises a very important point: if someone can try and do this to one of the most famous actresses in the world, they can absolutely do it to anyone,” Tino Gagliardi said in a statement shared first with PI. — “At the very least, we need Congress to pass legislation to protect all professional performers. This includes Oscar, Tony, and Grammy-winning actors, actresses, and musicians, as well as performers working at small clubs, from the misappropriation of their voice, sound, image, or likeness by AI.” THE DARK SIDE OF THE PACT ACT: In the year since Biden signed bipartisan legislation providing new benefits and health care for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, The Washington Post’s Lisa Rein reports that “glitches, slowdowns and other mishaps have dogged the program’s rollout by the Department of Veterans Affairs, enabling the growth of an unregulated shadow industry that promises to drastically boost tax-free disability checks, according to lawmakers, advocates and leaders in the claims industry — in exchange for veterans signing away thousands of dollars in future benefits.” — “Despite a federal law that prohibits charging veterans for help in applying for compensation for wartime injuries, as many as 100 unaccredited, for-profit companies now are making hundreds of millions of dollars, a Washington Post review found.” — “The overwhelmed veterans agency says the government is all but powerless to stop the practice, particularly since Congress years ago stripped criminal penalties from the law. And now a cadre of mostly Republican lawmakers is pushing to do away with the restrictions altogether, a plan bankrolled by a well-funded industry group led by a former high-ranking Trump administration VA official.” SPOTTED at a Capitol Hill reception Tuesday hosted by the Preserve Viewer Choice Coalition to tout “the wide range of content streaming platforms offer viewers,” per a tipster: Reps. Ben Cline (R-Va.), John Joyce (R-Pa.), Tony Càrdenas (D-Calif.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.), John Lin and Slate Herman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, Liam Fitzsimmons of Rep. Frank Pallone’s (D-N.J.) office, Jared Sher and Kaya Singleton of Roku, Joanna Orlando and Alex Dillie of Fox, Steve Elmendorf and Bryce Harlow of Avoq, Zuraya Tapia-Hadley of TelevisaUnivision, Jasmine Vasquez of YouTube TV, Fred Sottnick and Bill Bailey of Disney, Tejasi Thatte and Cort Bush of NBC, Ed Hill and Keith Murphy of Paramount and Neil Fried of Warner Bros. Discovery.
| 
