FIRST IN PI — WHO’S COMING TO DINNER: The NRCC is hosting its winter meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Key Biscayne, Florida, today through Sunday, Daniel reports. Dozens of House Republicans are attending, including Speaker Mike Johnson, Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and NRCC Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.). — Of course, dozens of lobbyists are attending as well, according to a list of expected attendees obtained by PI. They include BlackRock’s Benjamin Cantrell, Hogan Lovells’ Aaron Cutler, Juul Labs’ Bruce Gates, J.A. Green’s Jeff Green, BGR Group’s Dan Greenwood, Williams & Jensen’s Susan Hirschmann, NextEra Energy’s Phil Musser, Oracle’s Josh Pitcock, American Petroleum Institute’s Mike Sommers, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s Geoff Verhoff and former Reps. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), now with Venture Government Strategies, and Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.), now with AT&T. GREENS GO RED: “A conservation group founded by young conservatives has pulled out all the stops in the hopes of being a player with Republicans in Washington,” per POLITICO’s E&E News’ Tim Cama. But “whether that push from the American Conservation Coalition bears fruit remains a big question.” — “Over the past several years, the group has made inroads with key officials who went on to join President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. It co-hosted a glitzy influencer party the night before Trump’s inauguration alongside TikTok, the social media app. And its co-founder helped spark the idea for a first-of-its kind House GOP caucus dedicated to climate.” — “After laying that groundwork, ACC is now trying to influence Republicans in power as the party seeks to overhaul federal permitting standards and forest management laws. It's also hoping to push Trump’s ‘energy dominance’ agenda with an environmental lens, among other initiatives.” AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES: “In 2021, Steve Berger, an evangelical pastor who has attacked the separation of church and state as ‘a delusional lie’ and called multinational institutions ‘demonic,’ set off on an ambitious project. His stated goal: minister to members of Congress so that what ‘they learn is then translated into policy.’ His base of operations would be a six-bedroom, $3.7 million townhouse blocks from the U.S. Capitol,” ProPublica’s Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski write. — “Recently, the pastor scored a remarkable coup for a political influence project that has until now managed to avoid public scrutiny. … House Speaker Mike Johnson has been staying at the home since around the beginning of this year, according to interviews and videos obtained by ProPublica.” Doing so would not be against ethics rules as long as Johnson is paying a fair market rate for rent, which could be as much as $7,000 in the neighborhood. — The townhouse is owned by GOP donor and car dealer Lee Beaman, “who has joined Berger in advocating for and against multiple bills before Congress,” including “a bill that would make it easier to fire federal employees and a regulation that would reduce fuel efficiency standards for the automotive industry.” — And Johnson isn’t the only influential Republican in the Bergers’ circle — former Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), who’s been nominated for a key post in the White House budget office, “seems to have also lived in the home last year while he was still a congressman,” according to ProPublica. INAUGURAL LEADER HEADS TO FGS: FGS Global has snapped up Richard Walters, a longtime Republican operative who served as the executive director of Trump’s second inaugural committee. He’ll be a partner in the firm’s government affairs practice. — Walters served as the longest running RNC chief of staff before stepping down in 2022, but he stayed on with the committee to help lead planning for last year’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and served as a senior adviser and chief of staff to former Chair Ronna McDaniel. JASSY: TRUMP ADMIN. ‘CARES’ WHAT BUSINESS THINKS: Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy had kind words for the second Trump administration on its receptiveness to hearing out the business community in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Caroline Hyde on Thursday. — “I would say that some administrations are more receptive to it than others, but this administration cares about what business thinks,” Jassy said, adding that the e-commerce giant has sought to build a "productive relationship” with every White House. “I've always been surprised that it isn't obvious that the best economic results for a country are going to be when the public and the private sector collaborate,” he argued, telling Bloomberg he’s been “encouraged” by the Trump administration’s early posture toward industry. — Jassy went on to say that he has spoken to Trump and taken calls personally from others in the administration, with whom he has shared “what's working for us, what's not working for us, concerns that we have.” — Of course, the praise comes amid an apparent reset between Trump and Amazon founder and Executive Chair Jeff Bezos over the past year (Trump revealed in an interview with The Spectator posted today that he and Bezos had dinner just a few days ago) a remarkable turnaround compared to the pair’s acrimonious relationship during Trump’s first term. — Trump’s appointees — including Attorney General Pam Bondi, a former Amazon lobbyist — once again wield power over the fate of federal labor and antitrust probes as well as a slew of federal contracts sought by the company’s cloud computing arm, to say nothing of broader regulatory policies. FLYING IN: The ACES Mobility Coalition, which represents public and private stakeholders in support of moving toward autonomous public transportation, will hit D.C. next week to advocate for those priorities in the next surface transportation reauthorization. — Members of the coalition — including the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, Jacksonville Transportation Authority, Metra, SporTran, Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, Beep, BENTELER Mobility, Holon, May Mobility, Adastec and Safe - The Coalition for Reimagined Mobility — have more than 20 meetings on the books with lawmakers and staff on both sides of the aisle as well as administration officials to lay the groundwork for AV and transit policies. — Hundreds of firefighters and emergency medical responders will be on the Hill next week as well as part of the International Association of Fire Fighters’ annual legislative conference. — They’ll hear from more than a dozen lawmakers Monday, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, before flocking to the Capitol the next day to lobby for legislation to expand Public Safety Officer Benefits to include occupational cancer deaths, fund the development of PFAS-free gear, bolster firefighters’ freedom of expression protections and more. GIRD YOUR PATAGONIAS: “The Trump administration is looking to cut federal contracts. Few companies stand as exposed as Booz Allen Hamilton,” The Wall Street Journal’s Chip Cutter writes. — “The venerable Washington, D.C., area firm works on projects across the U.S. government. It operates a website visitors use to reserve campsites at national parks. It is modernizing healthcare records for veterans, beefing up technology at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and rolling out a suite of artificial-intelligence and cybersecurity tools across the Department of Defense and other federal agencies.” — The firm “generates 98% of its roughly $11 billion in annual revenue from contracts in which the end client is a U.S. government agency or department. It has told investors that it sees the U.S. government as the world’s largest consumer of management consulting and technology services.” — But “a memo sent this week from Stephen Ehikian, the acting administrator of the General Services Administration, calls on procurement officials at federal agencies to list and justify consulting contracts from 10 companies — including Booz Allen, Accenture, Deloitte and International Business Machines — that the agencies intend to keep.”
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