With Daniel Lippman BLUE ORIGIN HIRES BALLARD: New business is still flooding into Ballard Partners, which has registered to lobby for Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-owned rival of Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX. Brian Ballard, Mat Forrest and Dan McFaul started lobbying for Blue Origin at the beginning of January on “issues related to commercial spaceflight and guidance on opportunities to utilize Blue Origin capabilities,” according to a newly filed disclosure. — Ballard is the second new outside lobbying firm brought on by Blue Origin this year. Blue Origin also added S-3 Group in January. Both hires come amid unease in the space industry over Musk’s deepening bond with President Donald Trump and sweeping push to remake the federal government. — Bezos last month handwaved concerns that Musk might misuse his government position to boost his vast business empire over competitors, telling Reuters that he believed Musk’s assertions “that he's doing this for the public interest and not for his personal gain.” — Still, Bezos has been among the parade of chief executives making very public overtures to Trump since last fall: Bezos intervened to block the editorial board at The Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing Kamala Harris last fall; and after Trump won, Amazon donated $1 million to his inauguration (to which Bezos scored a seat in front of Trump’s Cabinet nominees) and streamed the ceremony on its Prime Video service for free. Prime Video is also reportedly paying tens of millions of dollars to produce a documentary about first lady Melania Trump. — Blue Origin isn’t the only Bezos-owned company on Ballard’s lobbying roster. The firm also represents Amazon — among the e-commerce giant’s former lobbyists on the account is now-Attorney General Pam Bondi. Happy Wednesday and welcome to PI, where Freddie the English Springer Spaniel is best in show in our heart. Let me know why your dog's breed should have won the Westminster Dog Show instead, your thoughts on the House GOP's budget blueprint or anything else that strikes your fancy: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko.
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HOUSE OF CARD: Card & Associates, the government affairs shop started more than a decade ago by K Street veteran Brad Card, is joining forces with Chartwell Strategy Group. The merger will strengthen Chartwell’s lobbying practice and support the firm’s organic growth, Chartwell managing director Dave Tamasi said in an email. — Card was a former Hill chief of staff who spent 12 years at Dutko before founding his own firm. He’ll be a managing director at Chartwell and will be joined by his colleague Adam Bordes. Card & Associates’ clients include Amazon, the Corn Refiners Association and the Greater New York Hospital Association. MORE NEW BUSINESS: Amazon has brought on a new outside firm as well. The company hired former Senate GOP tax advisers Brendan Dunn, Brett Quick and Riley Stamper of Phronesis to lobby on — wouldn’t you know it — taxes. And software giant Salesforce has added Skyline Capitol, the firm started by former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), as a subcontractor of Moran Global Strategies, the firm founded by former Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.). — Republican lobbyists at TheGROUP D.C. have registered a few new clients — including private student loan lender Sallie Mae, for whom David Cleary will lobby on student loans and budget reconciliation, and AARP, for whom Pamela Thiessen and Cleary will work on Medicare, Medicaid and tax issues like the group’s push for a caregiver tax break, according to a disclosure filing. — And aluminum recycler Novelis, the U.S. subsidiary of an Indian aluminum conglomerate, hired Mercury Public Affairs’ Bryan Lanza, a former adviser on Trump’s first transition, and James Messner, a former aide to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, to lobby on trade issues related to the aluminum industry — a timely hire ahead of Trump’s move this week to slap 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. ADANI’S LOBBYING ARMY: “In the months since the U.S. criminally and civilly charged Gautam Adani over an alleged bribery scheme, both court dockets have gone quiet. But Asia’s second-richest man has been busy, building a political influence operation in the U.S. spanning white shoe law firms and lobbyists, looking to simultaneously deal with the legal cases and expand his business, according to people with knowledge of the effort,” Bloomberg’s Tom Schoenberg, Sanjai P.R., and Ava Benny-Morrison write. — “And, increasingly, he is leaning on political relationships, with mounting signs he’s gaining clout that could help sway the White House. In India, his camp has reached out to officials there ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington this week, said some of the people, who asked not to be named discussing confidential talks.” — “In other corners, the pace of activity is quickening. Late last week, two prominent law firms previously hired by Adani — Kirkland & Ellis and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan — registered as lobbyists for both his legal cases and business interests.” — “This week, a growing number of Republican lawmakers publicly weighed in, framing the charges as detrimental to the U.S.-India relationship and both countries’ economies. More broadly, Trump himself signaled intent to dial back how the U.S. polices international bribery.” DON’T GO GETTING ANY IDEAS: Trump this week moved to roll back enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars American companies from offering bribes to foreign officials. But the top Democrat on the House Select China Committee on Tuesday fired off a warning shot to corporate leaders doing business in China that his panel won’t be letting them off so easily. — “Simply put, any company contemplating relying on the recent executive order to loosen internal policies or procedures regarding improper payments to government officials in the PRC should think twice,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) warned in a letter to the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. — The bribery statute carries at least a five-year statute of limitations — which would outlast the current administration and the FCPA enforcement pause alike, Krishnamoorthi noted. Even so, he continued, “should an American business decide to try to take advantage of this pause in FCPA enforcement, they should not be surprised to hear from Congress.” HIT FROM WHERE IT HURTS: “Red-state universities are hitting back at the Trump administration’s expansive cuts to science and research funding, warning they would be forced to shutter laboratories and lay off staff should they face the sudden elimination of millions of dollars in funding,” per our Adam Cancryn and Juan Perez Jr. — “The blowback, echoed by at least two Republican senators, marks the most widespread political resistance the Trump administration has faced in its rapid sprint to reshape the federal government and its spending policies.” — “The administration has framed its blanket cap on National Institutes of Health funding for research-related administrative costs as reining in elite coastal institutions. … Yet in a flurry of lawsuits and dire pleas, universities in ruby red states like Alabama and Kentucky warned that the cuts could be devastating to public institutions that are widely regarded as economic engines in their regions.” SPOTTED yesterday at the Internet Education Foundation’s State of the Net Conference, per a tipster: FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.), Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) and Kat Cammack (R-Fla.); Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ari Schwartz of the Center for Cybersecurity Policy & Law, Jeremy Grant of the Better Identity Coalition, Heather West of Venable, John Perrino of Internet Society, Steve DelBianco of NetChoice, Travis LeBlanc of Cooley, Shira Perlmutter of the U.S. Copyright Office, Emma Morris and Matt Kaufman of Roblox, Tricia McCleary of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, John Mitchell of the Consumer Technology Association, Billy Easley of Reddit, Jennifer Taylor Hodges of Mozilla, Christian Dawson of i2Coalition, Blake Adami of Snap Inc., Johanna Shelton of OpenAI, Jeffrey Zubricki of Etsy, former NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson, Rebecca Kern of the FTC, Chris Lewis of Public Knowledge, Tim Lordan of IEF and Maura Colleton Corbett, Amy Schatz, Anne Keeney, Davey McKissick, Halley Roth and Connor Farry of Glen Echo Group.
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— Brett McGurk is now a non-resident senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He most recently was deputy assistant to Biden and coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa at the NSC. — Audra Jackson has joined the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers as director of government affairs. She was previously special assistant to former President Joe Biden and White House legislative affairs liaison for the House. — James Baehr has been nominated to be general counsel of the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is currently a special counsel at the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute, and was a special assistant to the president in the Domestic Policy Council in the first Trump White House. — Esther Kahng, a longtime aide to ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on the House Financial Services Committee who most recently served as the California Democrat’s chief counsel, is leaving the Hill to serve as head of public policy and chief of staff at Zest AI. — Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf is joining the Protecting America Initiative as senior adviser. — Michael Chirico is joining American Water as director of legislative and external affairs. He was previously vice president of government affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and is a Carol Miller and Evan Jenkins alum. — Taylor Giorno is joining NOTUS as a lobbying and influence reporter. She previously was a business and lobbying reporter at The Hill. — David Hill will be executive vice president of the energy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He is an NRG Energy, Sidley Austin and Energy Department alum. — Jimmy Rhee is joining Grayson & Co. as senior adviser for Asia. He previously was cabinet secretary for business affairs in Maryland. — Jonathan Haray is rejoining DLA Piper as a partner in the litigation practice. He most recently was a principal assistant deputy chief of the Justice Department Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
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Ae Industrial Partners, Lp: Ae Industrial Partners, Lp Ascend Consulting: Altus Solutions, Inc. Ballard Partners: Airlines For America Ballard Partners: Blue Origin, LLC Ballard Partners: University Of Florida Health Corporation Barker Leavitt, Pllc (Ska Mr. James C. Barker): American Capitol Group Obo Balance Of Nature Barrick Gold Corporation: Barrick Gold Corporation Carlough Solutions, LLC: Ssab Enterprises, LLC Continental Strategy, LLC: Coupang Inc. Continental Strategy, LLC: New College Of Florida Continental Strategy, LLC: University Of North Florida Defending Our Country, LLC: Sbcc Equipment Dentons US LLP: Bay Mills Indian Community Dga Group Government Relations LLC (Formerly Dentons Global Advisors Government: American Amusement Machine Association Dga Group Government Relations LLC (Formerly Dentons Global Advisors Government: Amusement And Music Operators Association Dga Group Government Relations LLC (Formerly Dentons Global Advisors Government: Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. Dla Piper LLP (US): Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation (Dba Wps Health Solutions) Emergent Strategies: Zeta Global Corp. Ernst & Young LLP (Washington Council Ernst & Young): The Transport Project J M Burkman & Associates: Erika Magarian Jones Walker, LLP: Nola Education, LLC K&L Gates, LLP: Scholastic Inc. Lederman Group, LLC: Summit Agriculture Group Megafire Action: Megafire Action Phronesisdc, LLC: Amazon Rich Feuer Anderson: Ontario Systems, LLC D/B/A Finvi S-3 Group: Gea Mechanical Equipment US, Inc. Skyline Capitol LLC: Moran Global Strategies, Inc. Obo Salesforce, Inc. Tch Group, LLC: Bell Legal Group Thegroup Dc, LLC: Aarp Tripp Hollander Advisors: Contessa Health Tripp Hollander Advisors: Inbound Health Veng Group: Freefrom
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