THE SON ALSO RISES: Our Benjamin Guggenheim has a big investigation out today on the business entanglements of Brendan Neal, the son of the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal (D-Mass.). — Benjamin reports that Brendan Neal’s career in Washington has risen steadily alongside his father’s, thanks to lobbying and consulting work for and alongside those with business before the committee — some of whom appeared to notch policy victories after working with Brendan Neal while his father was chair of the powerful tax-writing panel. — A spokesperson for the lawmaker told Benjamin that Brendan Neal never lobbied his father and that the two don’t discuss business. While the arrangements are neither illegal nor unheard of, progressive tax advocates are giving them another look as Richard Neal is poised to “guide the panel through what many in Washington are calling the ‘Super Bowl of Tax.'" — If Democrats retake control of the House next month, Richard Neal will be leading the charge on “a massive renegotiation of $4.6 trillion worth of expiring tax cuts” along with “potentially trillions more tax cuts affecting issues such as Social Security and state and local taxes.” THE RISE OF THE SANCTIONS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: “A sharp increase in U.S. sanctions has spawned a new lobbying industry in Washington, as businesses and governments around the world attempt to shape these economic penalties by hiring former U.S. officials to leverage their connections,” The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein, Federica Cocco and Peter Whoriskey report. — The latest installment in the paper’s series on the ripple effects of the United States’ evolving sanctions policy details how “an avalanche of cash from abroad has flowed to former lawmakers and aides from both parties with experience at some of the highest levels of American government.” — Lobbying spending on the issue by foreign entities “surged from roughly $6 million in 2014 to at least $31 million in 2022,” while domestic firms spent more than $353 million last year compared to $97 million in 1998, the Post found. — The flourishing new cottage industry has even prompted concerns at the White House, where officials are considering stiffer revolving-door restrictions for sanctions-related lobbying in an effort to counter even the perception that sanction decisions can be swayed by the highest bidder. SMALL BUSINESSES PLEAD FOR AID: Industry groups representing small and minority business owners called on Congress to move swiftly to replenish a key disaster loan program depleted after the devastation caused by hurricanes Helene and Milton this fall. — The Small Business Administration announced last week that it had run out of funding to issue new Economic Injury Disaster Loans until Congress appropriates more money for the program, which provides low-interest, long-term loans to disaster survivors. — “Small businesses in hurricane-affected regions are struggling to stay afloat while waiting for relief, and many cannot survive without the immediate restoration of EIDL funds,” the business groups wrote in a letter this week to congressional leadership and the heads of the House and Senate appropriations and small business committees. — Congress is likely to pass a disaster supplemental in response to the hurricanes, but lawmakers aren’t expected to return to do so until after November’s elections. In the meantime, the letter's signatories warned that “the risk of permanent closures is rising with every passing day, threatening local economies, jobs, and the livelihoods of millions of Americans.” — The letter was signed by Women Impacting Public Policy, U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., the Association of Women’s Business Centers, the International Franchise Association, NextGen Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Women Business Owners, the National Association for the Self-Employed , the Small Business Roundtable and Women In Toys. END CITIZENS UNITED GOES AFTER CALVERT: Progressive money-in-politics group End Citizens United is launching a pair of six-figure ad buys targeting two vulnerable Republican congressmen in the final days of the election. — The group will drop $100,000 on streaming, digital and text ads bashing New York Rep. Marc Molinaro as a “thirty-year career politician” who’s taken “hundreds of thousands from corporate special interests” like the drug industry — while taking votes aligned with drugmakers’ preferences. ECU is spending another six figures on a mail campaign that hits 16-term California Rep. Ken Calvert for increasing his net worth by roughly $20 million during his time in office.
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