With Daniel Lippman EXXON ADDS SOME DEMS: Oil giant Exxon Mobil has added a new crew of Democrats to its bench of outside lobbyists. Exxon retained Democratic firm Empire Consulting Group at the beginning of May to lobby on oil and gas, environment and tax issues, according to a disclosure filing. — Mike McKay, a former aide to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.); Brandon Garrett, a chief of staff to Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) and former policy director to then-Vice President Joe Biden; Brian Greer, a former staffer for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer; and Mike Mullen, a former staffer for former Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), will work on the account for Empire. — Exxon has eight other lobbying firms on retainer: Harbinger Strategies, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Crossroads Strategies, Kelley Drye & Warren, the Simmons & Russell Group, Venture Government Strategies, Cornerstone Government Affairs and HLP&R Advocacy. DUNN SIGNS A DOZEN: Former Mitch McConnell tax adviser Brendan Dunn has registered his first batch of clients at PhronesisDC, bringing a dozen companies and trade groups for whom he previously lobbied at Akin over to the boutique firm he launched earlier this year. — Telecom giant Verizon, the National Association of Realtors, crypto broker LMAX Group, Koch Government Affairs, the crypto trade association Crypto Council for Innovation and the American Council of Life Insurers all parted ways with Akin this summer, according to disclosure filings, and have followed Dunn to Phronesis. Dunn also signed his former client Visa, which still retains Akin, as well as the American Property Owners Alliance, which Akin will continue to lobby for as a subcontractor to Dunn. — The signings give Dunn a solid roster of initial clients as activity picks up around Washington on cryptocurrency regulations and more generally as K Street and the business community prepare for a marathon fight to renew prized business tax breaks that are set to expire next year. Happy Thursday and welcome to PI, where we anxiously await the results of this FEC inquiry. Get in touch with lobbying tips or anything else you’d like to see in FEC disclosures: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. PRO SPORTS UNIONS SHRED STUDENT ATHLETE BILL: Labor giant AFL-CIO and players’ unions for eight pro sports leagues in the U.S. have registered their opposition to Rep. Bob Good’ s (R-Va.) bill proposing to ban college athletes from being considered employees and thus being able to unionize. — “The AFL-CIO and its Sports Council affiliates unanimously oppose any legislation that denies college athletes employee status,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler wrote in a letter Wednesday to the heads of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, which advanced the bill in a party-line vote just before publication. “These athletes dedicate immense effort, endure rigorous schedules, and risk bodily injury daily for their schools,” Shuler continued, adding that “the labor movement stands in unwavering solidarity with student-athletes and firmly against this bill.” — The AFL-CIO’s Sports Council includes unions representing players in the National Football League, Major League Soccer, Major League Baseball, the National Women's Soccer League, the United Football League, the United Soccer League, the Women's National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. — Good’s bill touches on a key point of contention in the legal and political fight over how student-athletes should be compensated for their name, image and likeness. In a landmark decision earlier this year, the NLRB ruled that members of Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team should be considered employees who are allowed to unionize, an issue NCAA and college athletics’ biggest — and most lucrative — conferences are united in opposition against. — “Protecting student-athletes’ status as students, not employees, is vital for preserving athletic and educational opportunities,” the so-called Power Five conferences — the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference and Southeastern Conference — said in a statement earlier this week, arguing that allowing college athletes to be considered employees “would cause harm to the future viability of many college sports programs, particularly women's and Olympic sports.” CLICKER: “To hear data experts tell it, the smart TV revolution was supercharged by Covid-19, when consumers stuck inside rushed to upgrade their televisions,” NOTUS’ Maggie Severns writes. “Now, streaming television is quickly becoming instrumental to campaigning, promising politicians the ability to reach more voters and target them with highly specific ads. … But campaigns’ ability to peer into the television habits of voters alarms privacy advocates, who say voters are not properly informed about what’s on their television.” THE REAL ‘MASTERMIND’ BEHIND INSULIN PRICE CAP: “Both President Biden and former President Trump love to claim credit for getting more Americans $35 insulin. But the credit should actually go to a giant pharmaceutical company — just the type that both men claim to have challenged,” per Stat’s Rachel Cohrs Zhang. — “Eli Lilly, an $800 billion pharma giant and one of three insulin manufacturers in the United States, first proposed an experiment allowing Medicare insurance plans to offer $35 monthly insulin in 2019, CEO David Ricks and former Medicare agency chief Seema Verma said in interviews with STAT.” — “The $35 monthly cap has proliferated broadly to nearly every corner of the American health care system. The cap eventually became law in Medicare, as one of Biden’s signature legislative achievements, adding more protections for the more than three million seniors who use insulin.” — “Some pharmaceutical companies, including Lilly and Sanofi, have adopted similar limits in their copay assistance programs. The origin story of the amount patients are expected to pay for insulin has not been previously reported.” OH NOVO THEY DIDN’T: Tensions are beginning to bubble over between Senate HELP Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk over Sanders’ demands that executives for the Ozempic maker appear before his committee. — Attorneys for Novo Nordisk accused Sanders this week of repeatedly misrepresenting the company’s cooperation with the HELP Committee, which is investigating the drug company’s pricing practices for the increasingly popular weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, our Lauren Gardner reports. Sanders has threatened to subpoena Novo executives despite having previously committed to testifying under negotiated conditions, Lauren reports. — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce even jumped into the fray earlier this week, with the business group’s chief policy officer accusing Sanders of “abusing the power of his committee to intimidate companies irrespective of the facts.” — “The Senator’s continued pattern of launching attacks on private companies with which he disagrees is deeply worrisome for the business community,” Neil Bradley said in a statement, adding that “the spectacle of an elected official targeting reputable companies for what appears to be political gain undermines the very foundations of the American economic system. Politicians targeting companies in this manner sets a dangerous precedent and threatens the stability and integrity of the business environment.” IF YOU’RE IN LINE TO FLY IN, STAY IN LINE: Corporations and industry groups are flocking to the Hill this week as appropriations season picks up and lawmakers begin teeing up bills for the final pre-election legislative push and lame duck. — Among those on the Hill today were the drug industry trade group PhRMA, which brought in more than 60 researchers from PhRMA member companies to discuss the importance of research and development to the drug industry and push lawmakers to implement “policies that support innovation.” — Around 30 Amazon sellers were roaming the Capitol today as well as part of a fly-in organized by the e-commerce giant to highlight the stories of small sellers on its platform. The business owners also hit last night’s Congressional Baseball Game with Amazon to show off their wares. — The Children’s Hospital Association continued its fly-in today, bringing pediatric patients and their families to lobby for improving access to high-quality pediatric care and bolstering the pediatric workforce, among other issues. Today’s activities included a mock hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee room featuring pediatric patients as committee members. — Yesterday, members of the American Cleaning Institute were on the Hill to call for a speedier review process for new chemicals at the EPA, as well as the cleaning products industry’s recycling initiatives. SPOTTED last night at a summer reception for the Options Clearing Corporation at the Capitol, per a tipster: Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Andy Barr (R-Ky.), Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), William Timmons (R-S.C.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), and Craig Donohue, Andrej Bolkovic, Julie Bauer, Jim Hall and Daniel Schramm of the Options Clearing Corporation. — And in BGR Group’s suite at the Congressional Baseball Game, per a tipster: House Speaker Mike Johnson, Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), Jason Smith (R-Mo.), Scott Fitzgerald (R-Pa.), Mark Green (R-Tenn.), Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas), Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), Rudy Yakym (R-Ind.) Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), John Joyce (R-Pa.), Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ron Estes (R-Kan.), Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), Barr, Garbarino and Meuser.
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