MIT joins schools adding K Street firepower

Feb 10, 2025

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With Daniel Lippman

ENDOWMENT FIGHT SPURS HIRING FRENZY: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has hired S-3 Group to lobby on tax policy as higher education works to avoid becoming a pay-for in Republicans’ reconciliation plans. Marty Reiser, a former aide to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, began working for the university on Jan. 13, alongside John Scofield, Ashley Davis, Jose Ceballos, Chris Buki and Shimmy Stein, according to a disclosure filing.

— The hire marks the first time in at least 26 years that MIT has hired an outside lobbying firm in Washington and comes amid rising fears among colleges and universities that policymakers in the new GOP-controlled Washington will make good on any number of threats to colleges’ bottom lines, including by targeting elite universities’ multimillion-dollar endowments.

— A menu of potential revenue-raisers circulated by House Republicans and reported by POLITICO days before S-3 Group’s lobbying began shows lawmakers want to raise the excise tax on the largest university endowments — created as part of the 2017 tax bill — from 1.4 percent to 14 percent, and expanding the number of schools subject to the tax.

— The 14 percent figure is much lower than the 35 percent excise tax proposed by then-Sen. JD Vance in 2023, but another bill introduced this year calls for hiking the endowment tax to 21 percent, to match the current corporate tax rate.

— MIT is the latest elite college to ramp up its lobbying footprint as policymakers look to turn the screws on higher education — with the latest blow coming this weekend, when NIH said it was slashing funding for research overhead.

— Columbia University, which had already been in lawmakers’ crosshairs over its handling of anti-Israel protests on its campus, has hired two new lobbying firms — Tiber Creek Group and BGR Group — since the election, while Harvard University’s leadership brought on Ballard Partners last month and New York University brought on Cornerstone Government Affairs in December.

— Last week, Van Scoyoc Associates registered to lobby for the National Association of College and University Business Officers, which represents college financial officers — the association’s first new outside lobbying hire since 2007. The University of Notre Dame, meanwhile, revived its in-house lobbying activity last month for the first time since 2018, disclosures show.

MORE NEW BUSINESS: As Congress continues trying to nail down the details of its reconciliation plans, here’s a quick round-up of several other recent registrations focused on tax issues: Solar equipment supplier GameChange Solar has retained former Rep. Peter Roskam and Chris Jones of Baker & Hostetler to lobby on tax incentives for domestic manufacturing, while the National Association of Energy Service Companies hired Klein/Johnson Group and Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions hired Holland & Knight to lobby on Inflation Reduction Act tax credits. Semiconductor manufacturer Marvell Technology has hired Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck to lobby on tax credits for advanced manufacturing.

— On the health care side, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has hired the Washington Tax & Public Policy Group to lobby on corporate and international taxes; AARP retained H&M Strategies to lobby on a slew of issues including taxation of social security benefits, affordable care act premium tax credits and tax credits for caregivers; and UnitedHealth Group retained Alston & Bird to lobby on tax credits for health insurance.

Happy Monday and welcome to PI. Thanks, as always, for reading. Send influence tips and gossip for me to run down: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko.

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HOW BUSINESS IS TIPTOEING AROUND IMMIGRATION: “Many of America's biggest businesses are quietly lobbying to curb President Donald Trump's plan to deport millions of immigrants — workers who represent a large share of their labor force,” Dave Levinthal writes for Business Insider, with some involved going so far as to adopt one of Trump’s cherished rhetorical flourishes for their campaign to “Make America Wealthy Again.”

— “The message — directed at officials in the Trump administration, along with Republicans in Congress — is that mass deportations would cripple the economy, driving up prices for everything from groceries to housing.”

— “Trump as a businessman understands that if he doesn't have 200 guys cutting the grass at his golf courses, then they don't look right, and people won't want to play golf there,” said Cristina Antelo of Ferox Strategies, which represents the National Retail Federation, Walmart and tobacco giant Reynolds American, among others. “There's a way to get to Trump and make him realize that. How many businesses does he need to hear from before he's like, ‘Crap, I really am going to paralyze the entire US labor market if I do this’?”

— “The MAWA plan is to apply pressure on business allies in Trump's inner circle, rather than on the president directly, and to steer clear of Stephen Miller, the administration's most outspoken anti-immigration hard-liner. … Instead, according to multiple lobbyists, they'll seek to influence Brooke Rollins, Trump's pick to lead the Department of Agriculture, and Kristi Noem, his secretary of Homeland Security.”

FORMER ROGERS CHIEF LOBBYING FOR SPACEX: Elon Musk’s role overseeing the sweeping remaking of the federal government apparently doesn’t negate the need for his companies to hire out for advocacy work.

— Musk’s rocket company SpaceX last month hired Williams & Jensen’s Chris Brinson, the former chief of staff to House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), to lobby on “national security launch issues,” according to a disclosure filing. Federal ethics rules bar Brinson from lobbying his former boss or staffers in Rogers’ office for one year, but he is free to lobby others on the Hill in the meantime.

TRUMP OUSTS TOP ETHICS WATCHDOG: Trump has removed Office of Government Ethics head David Huitema, the chief official charged with overseeing compliance with federal conflicts of interest and ethics rules across the government.

— “Huitema was confirmed by the Senate in December for a five-year term,” our Myah Ward writes, and “his dismissal was announced in one sentence on the OGE website, stating that the office had been notified that Trump is removing him as director. The website also said OGE will revert to an acting director: Shelley K. Finlayson, chief of staff and program counsel at the office.”

— The ouster is the “latest in Trump’s efforts to remove people charged with oversight of his administration from the federal government,” which has included watchdogs across a slew of agencies and federal prosecutors who worked on cases involving the Jan. 6 insurrection.

— And it comes just hours after Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) had pressed Huitema and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles over Musk’s compliance with federal ethics laws as a “special government employee.”

— Schiff asked for details about whether Musk has completed a financial disclosure, has received any ethics waivers or is working on any issues that could constitute a conflict of interest with any of his vast business interests, after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt last week indicated that it would be up to Musk to identify and recuse himself from any conflicts of interest he encountered while working in the government.

WIRELESS CAMPAIGN DINGS ‘CABLEOPOLY’: Cellular heavyweights are standing up a new coalition today to expand an ongoing fight against the cable industry, our friends at Morning Tech report.

— The founders of this new Spectrum for Broadband Competition coalition are CTIA and 5G Americas, both of which rep wireless players like AT&T and Cisco. The first campaign, “End the Cableopoly,” will feature at least four weeks of digital advertising aimed at Washington policymakers and highlight people’s personal internet connectivity stories, particularly the recent rise of 5G home broadband.

— Lurking behind this debut is the fight over how the government allocates airwaves to the private sector: The wireless lobby favors selling licensed spectrum to boost 5G and 6G networks, not the shared spectrum models favored by cable and benefiting unlicensed services like Wi-Fi. The lobbying fight has added urgency as lawmakers look to develop spectrum legislation, which could be folded into the GOP’s reconciliation package.

ANNALS OF SILENCE THAT’S DEAFENING: “After Senator Thom Tillis cast his vote to advance the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be health secretary, the North Carolina Republican posed a question. If Kennedy was so bad, where was the opposition from large interest groups?” The Boston Globe’s Tal Kopan writes.

— “Despite strong opposition to Kennedy by individual scientists and doctors, including dozens of Nobel Laureates, he’s faced little organized resistance from professional advocacy groups aligned with them in Washington, such as the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics.”

— But rather than implicit support, “some prominent physicians and scientists who have long opposed Kennedy’s work against vaccines and scientific consensus” said the relative paucity of objections from medical groups instead conveys “deep-seated anxiety over the potential consequences of speaking out,” and the silence is prompting criticism from others in the advocacy world.

A message from Sallie Mae®:

Borrowing to pay for college should never be the first option for students and families, but the current federal financial aid system is poorly designed to avoid it. In fact, unlimited federal lending programs continue to allow far too many students and families to take out loans they can't repay. Sallie Mae supports common sense reforms to the federal student loan system to protect students and families from overborrowing.

Jobs report

— Missye Brickell has joined TSMC’s Washington office as a senior director. She was most recently director of government relations, security and trust policy at Intel and is a Senate Commerce alum.

— Larry Seyfried is joining the Electronic Payments Coalition as its first head of federal government relations. Larry has served the last two Republican chairs of the House Financial Services Committee and is an American Bankers Association alum.

— BGR Group has hired Alex Gallo as a vice president in the defense and critical technologies practice and Marvin Figueroa as a vice president in the health and life sciences practice. Gallo is a senior vice president at NobleReach Foundation, and Figueroa was most recently chief of staff to former Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.).

— The Herald Group has promoted Ansley Bradwell and Cameron Smith to senior directors, and Wyatt Hamilton, Lily Reckford and Sallie Sorenson to senior associates.

— Loren Ponds has joined Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom as a partner in the tax group. She previously was a member of Miller & Chevalier, where she co-led the tax practice, and before that served as majority tax counsel on the House Ways and Means Committee.

— Amos Snead has launched a new strategic comms firm, The DUX Group LLC. He previously was president of Adfero for the last six years and is a Washington public affairs and Hill veteran, as well as chair emeritus of the National Press Foundation.

— Joseph Herbster has joined Jones Day as of counsel in the energy practice based in Houston. He was previously senior corporate counsel at Amazon.

— AstraZeneca has added Sylvia Lee as director of tax, trade and workforce policy and Leandra Olson as director of enterprise policy. Lee was previously with former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and Olson was previously at HHS.

— Lauren Chou is joining the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee as comms director. She most recently was comms director for Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s Florida Senate campaign and is an EMILY’s List and Mandela Barnes alum.

— Robert Marchant has joined Husch Blackwell Strategies as a managing principal and director of growth based in Madison, where he will also lead the firm’s Wisconsin state advocacy team. He was previously chief client officer and partner with Michael Best Strategies and also works part time as chief statistician for the Green Bay Packers.

— Ryan McManus and Tommy Reynolds are now directors of government relations at Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions. McManus previously was a government relations manager for the American Public Works Association. Reynolds previously was legislative director for Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.).

— Grace Hagerty is now an account director in BerlinRosen’s impact practice. She previously was press secretary for the Labor Department.

— Joshua Gardner is now vice president of corporate comms at Middleburg Communities. He previously was managing director at Stand Together and is a Frank Luntz alum.

— Erica Elliott Richardson is now chief of staff to Investment Company Institute President and CEO Eric Pan. She is also chief strategic communications officer at ICI and is a former Trump CFTC alum.

— Andy Beck has been named executive vice president of public affairs and communications at Ohio River South as it expands into D.C. He most recently was executive vice president at Antenna Group and is an Energy Department and EPA alum.

— Jimmy Rhee has joined Grayson & Co. as senior adviser for Asia. He was previously cabinet secretary for business affairs in Maryland and assistant secretary of commerce and trade in Virginia.

— Seth Locke is joining WilmerHale’s defense, national security and government contracts group. He previously co-chaired Perkins Coie’s government contracts group.

— Joe Gabriel Simonson is joining the FTC as director of public affairs. He previously was a senior investigative reporter for the Washington Free Beacon.

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New Joint Fundraisers

None.

New PACs

Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. PAC (PAC)

American Strategic Economic PAC (ASE-PAC) (Hybrid PAC)

GARV PAC (Hybrid PAC)

Leadership We Deserve (Super PAC)

Make America Wealthy Again (Super PAC)

A message from Sallie Mae®:

New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS

American College Of Preventive Medicine: American College Of Preventive Medicine

Arentfox Schiff LLP: International Recycling Group (Irg)

Arentfox Schiff LLP: Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Inc.

Axadvocacy Government Relations: Clearview Ai

Ballard Partners: Access Restoration Services US, Inc.

Ballard Partners: Potomac Center North, Inc.

Ballard Partners: Zscaler Inc.

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney Pc: Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation

Capitol Counsel LLC: Demers USa Inc.

Carlough Solutions, LLC: Transportation Institute

Corcoran & Associates, Inc. Dba Corcoran Partners: Bell Legal Group, LLC

Corcoran & Associates, Inc. Dba Corcoran Partners: Cgi Federal, Inc.

Dentons US LLP: West Coast University

Dutko Worldwide, LLC: H2L Solutions, Inc.

Gotham Government Relations: Andromeda Advantage Inc

Gotham Government Relations: New York Association Of Wholesalers And Distributors, Inc.

Gotham Government Relations: The Fuel Ox LLC

H&M Strategies LLP: Aarp

Invoke LLC: Machina Labs

J.A. Green And Company: Argo Space

J.A. Green And Company: Kodiak Robotics

Jpc Strategies, LLC: Public Strategies Washington Obo Schaeffler Group USa Inc.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP: Adani Green Energy Limited

Klein/Johnson Group: National Association Of Energy Service Companies (Naesco)

Mccartin Public Policy Group LLC: Acacia Center For Justice

Natera Inc: Natera Inc

Old North Strategies, LLC: Peter Damon Group On Behalf Of Rai Services Company

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP: Adani Green Energy Limited

S-3 Group: Alliance For Safety And Justice

S-3 Group: American Psychological Association Services, Inc.

S-3 Group: Center For Responsible Lending

S-3 Group: Center On Budget And Policy Priorities

S-3 Group: Cigar Association Of America

S-3 Group: Coalition Of Manufacturers Of Smoking Alternatives

S-3 Group: Davita, Inc.

S-3 Group: Expedia Group

S-3 Group: Families Against Mandatory Minimums

S-3 Group: Fresenius Kabi

S-3 Group: Health Industry Distributors Association

S-3 Group: International Legal Finance Association

S-3 Group: Lowe's Companies Inc.

S-3 Group: Massachusetts Institute Of Technology

S-3 Group: National Insurance Crime Bureau

S-3 Group: Prudential Financial, Inc.

S-3 Group: Republic Services, Inc.

S-3 Group: Vapor Technology Association

S-3 Group: Walgreen Company

Stevens & Lee Public Affairs: Fuelcell Energy

The Cormac Group, LLC: Tendo

The Washington Tax & Public Policy Group: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Thorsen French Advocacy LLC: International Labour Organization

Tides Group, LLC: Crystal Clean, Inc.

Tides Group, LLC: Entact LLC

Traction Strategic: Arnold Ventures

New Lobbying Terminations

American Hellenic Institute, Formerly Known As American Hellenic Institute P.A.C: American Hellenic Institute, Formerly Known As American Hellenic Institute P.A.C

Az Dc Consulting, LLC: Axiom Care

Becker & Poliakoff, P.A.: American Healthy Alternatives Association, Inc.

Css Partners, LLC: Cambridge Mobile Telematics

J.A. Green And Company: Primerai

J.A. Green And Company: Raft LLC

J.A. Green And Company: Salvo Technologies, Inc.

Kogovsek & Associates, Inc.: Southern Ute Indian Tribe

Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP: Black Players For Change

Siekman And Siekman LLC: Iap Deisgn-Build, LLC

Susan Stohr: Village Of Greenport

Ten One Strategies LLC: Wispr Systems

Washington & Madison, LLC: American Hellenic Institute

Washington & Madison, LLC: Ancient Coin Collectors Guild

Washington & Madison, LLC: Global Heritage Alliance

A message from Sallie Mae®:

The federal student loan system is overdue for reform. Every year, the federal government lends nearly $100 billion to students and families, and some programs allow virtually unlimited borrowing — without considering their ability to repay. Sallie Mae supports common sense reforms that protect against overborrowing. Students and families deserve a more transparent, responsible federal higher education financing system.