With Daniel Lippman

OPENAI’S HIRING SPREE CONTINUES: Former Sen. Norm Coleman of Hogan Lovells has registered to lobby for the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, the latest move by the industry leader to build out its lobbying footprint in the nation’s capital. The Minnesota Republican began lobbying for OpenAI in January on AI research and deployment, according to a disclosure filed over the weekend.

— Hogan Lovells is now the third outside firm on retainer for OpenAI, which had zero prior to the fall. DLA Piper, which had been serving as OpenAI’s sherpa around Washington since last spring, including by prepping OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for a landmark congressional hearing on AI last year, registered to lobby for the company in November, and was joined shortly after by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and OpenAI’s first in-house lobbyist, Chan Park.

— The hiring spree comes as a bipartisan Senate working group led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer prepares to unveil a regulatory framework for Hill committees to use to craft AI legislation later this year, and as antitrust regulators probe partnerships between leading AI startups like OpenAI and more traditional tech giants like OpenAI investor Microsoft.

TIKTOK LATEST: Conservative advocacy groups are splintering over the bipartisan bill that could boot TikTok from U.S. app stores as the House readies for a Wednesday vote on the legislation, pitting the bill’s supporters — the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity — against former President Donald Trump, who now opposes the measure despite spearheading the push to ban the video app while in office (and since rekindling with GOP megadonor and ByteDance investor Jeff Yass).

— Heritage’s lobbying arm this afternoon issued a key vote alert on the bill, which would require ByteDance to divest from TikTok or see the app banned from U.S. app stores. The Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity endorsed the bill from Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) when it was first introduced last week, ahead of its unanimous approval from the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday.

— But two other major conservative groups, both of which have financial ties to Yass, are rallying against the bill. Daniel reported over the weekend that major Yass beneficiary the Club for Growth has been paying former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway to lobby against a TikTok ban, and that she has met at least 10 times with lawmakers about the app in recent months.

— Today, the conservative group FreedomWorks came out in opposition to Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi’s bill, contending in a key vote alert that “this piece of legislation, no matter how well-intentioned, is an affront to the First Amendment.”

— Our Mallory Culhane has more on the top four outstanding questions related to the TikTok bill, including how serious Trump is in his opposition to the bill — which he argues presents a greater threat by its benefits to Facebook than TikTok does with its national security risks. (One person who agrees with Trump? Former adviser turned ByteDance lobbyist David Urban, who’s been reposting Trump’s commentary over on X.)

Happy Monday and welcome to PI, where we hope your daylight saving time change hangover wasn’t too rough this morning. Send K Street tips and gossip: [email protected]. And be sure to follow me on the platform formerly known as Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

OOPS: “An outside Boeing lobbyist on Capitol Hill sent an email to Republican members of Congress late Wednesday bluntly attempting to discredit the Senate testimony of National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy,” The Seattle Times’ Dominic Gates reports. “After The Seattle Times asked about the email Friday, both Boeing and the lobbyist” — Squire Patton Boggs’ Jack Kingston — “scrambled to undo the potential damage.”

— “Homendy had scathingly criticized Boeing for failing to produce documentation of the botched installation work on the door plug that blew out midair on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Jan. 5. … Homendy had testified that, over the two months since the blowout, the NTSB repeatedly asked Boeing for information related to the faulty installation last September of the door plug and had not received it. ‘It’s not for lack of trying,’ Homendy said.”

— Kingston wrote to lawmakers following bipartisan criticism of Boeing’s lack of cooperation about the incident that “the information that [Homendy] requested two months ago has been received. What has not been provided is additional information that she just requested this past Saturday, March 2 … Therefore, there have been only two full working days for Boeing to respond.”

— He told the Times that his email was sent inadvertently without his or Boeing’s knowledge and should not have gone out, while Boeing distanced itself from the memo and expressed “deep respect” for the NTSB.

PROGRESSIVES TEAM UP TO COUNTER AIPAC: Almost two dozen progressive advocacy groups have formed a new coalition aimed at countering the political and financial might of the pro-Israel group AIPAC. The coalition, Reject AIPAC, is launching a seven-figure paid media and field organizing campaign focused on defending members of Congress being targeted by AIPAC’s $100 million war chest and facing AIPAC-backed primary challengers.

— The groups will also seek to harness their grassroots to build support for priorities like securing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and putting conditions on U.S. aid to Israel, and are calling on lawmakers to sign a pledge swearing off AIPAC’s money “just like Democratic voters and their elected officials have rejected special interest groups like the NRA after they cemented themselves as a far-right group out of step with Democratic Party values,” the coalition said.

— The coalition includes Justice Democrats, the IfNotNow Movement, the Sunrise Movement, Showing Up for Racial Justice, MPower Change Action Fund, the Democratic Socialists of America, the Center for Popular Democracy Action and the Bernie Sanders-founded Our Revolution, among others.

FLYING IN: Fly-in season continues to be in full swing this week, with several groups including the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Career Education Colleges and Universities and the American Diabetes Association flying in advocates. More than 300 pharmacists, student pharmacists, faculty and other pharmacy reps with NACDS will look to make the case that legislation to rein in pharmacy benefit managers is a “must-pass” this Congress, according to the trade group.

— The for-profit colleges association kicked off a two-day advocacy blitz today with more than 100 meetings planned on the Hill to lobby on the bipartisan short-term Pell bill, as well as a GOP legislative response to President Joe Biden’s student loan reform efforts. CECU representatives are set to meet with House Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and ranking member Bobby Scott (D-Va.), as well as Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Ted Budd (R-N.C.), and Reps. G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.), Darren Soto (D-Fla.), Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), Aaron Bean (R-Fla.), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Mike Kelly (R-Pa.).

— The ADA will use its fly-in this week to advocate for extending the $35-per-month insulin cap to those with commercial health insurance, increasing federal funding for diabetes research and programs, and extending Medicare coverage for things like behavioral therapy to treat obesity.

— Advocates with the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly will meet with members and staff on the Hill tomorrow to discuss lifting several barriers to their program (which allows elderly people to live and be fully cared for in their own homes), like Medicare’s Part D prescription policies.

— Meanwhile another advocacy group, which is pushing for better access to mental health care in aviation, is holding its first fly-in this week. The campaign will meet with staff for Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and ranking member Ted Cruz (R-Texas), as well as the offices of Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) and Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) to discuss what advocates say are outdated mental health policies at FAA.

ANNALS OF DARK MONEY: “A husband-and-wife duo whose fortune has ties to AI investments and cryptocurrency trading are quietly emerging as some of the largest backers of the main dark-money group boosting President Joe Biden,” per CNN’s Casey Tolan.

— “The second-largest donation in 2022 to the non-profit arm of Future Forward, the primary Super PAC supporting Biden, came from a group run by James McClave and Emily Berger. The couple work at Jane Street, a Manhattan trading firm, and McClave was an early investor in the AI company Anthropic.”

— “Tax records reviewed by CNN, which have not been previously reported, show that BEMC 4 Association — a non-profit whose only two executives are McClave and Berger — gave $7.2 million to Future Forward USA Action in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. That’s more than any group other than the George Soros-linked Open Society Policy Center, which gave $15.2 million that year.”

— “The tax records don’t confirm whether the $7.2 million is from McClave and Berger personally, or other donors to the group they control. But the only donations BEMC reported receiving were in the form of interest in a financial holding company or partnership. And it’s not uncommon for large donors to create new non-profits to distribute their own money, [OpenSecrets’ Anna] Massoglia said.”

— “While McClave and Berger don’t have much of a public profile, they have been quietly increasing their political spending. The couple have given more than $1 million in total in recent years to a wide variety of other Democratic Party groups and candidates in federal and state elections, records show – becoming top donors to progressives such as Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.”

Jobs Report

— Randi Hutchinson is returning to Greenberg Traurig as of counsel. She was previously chief of staff for USDA’s Rural Development/Rural Utilities Service and was chief counsel for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

— Samantha Vinograd, a partner at Brunswick Group, has been named a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council by Biden.

— Denise Grant, founder and CEO of Overlook Strategies, has been named a member of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board by Biden.

— Claire Umetin is now a strategic outreach and visits manager with Google’s government affairs and public policy team. She previously was at State’s Office of the Chief of Protocol.

— Morgan Caplan is now senior communications manager at Moyer Strategies. She previously was associate press secretary at the Sierra Club.

— Ernie Tedeschi is joining Georgetown University’s Psaros Center for Financial Markets & Policy as a visiting fellow. Tedeschi was most recently the chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisors and previously worked at Evercore ISI and the Obama Treasury Department.

New Joint Fundraisers

Bennet Booker Hickenlooper Victory Fund (Sens. Cory Booker, Michael Bennet, John Hickenlooper)

Blue to the Future 2024 (Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Don Davis, Dina Titus, Susie Lee, Steven Horsford, Emilia Sykes, Susan Wild, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Yadira Caraveo, Frank Mrvan, Jobs, Education, & Families First JEFF PAC, Hertel for Michigan, Adam Gray for Congress, Rudy Salas for Congress, George Whitesides for Congress, Will Rollins for Congress, Missy for Congress, Janelle Bynum for Congress, Baccam for Iowa, ACTBLUE AZ-01 2024 Democratic Nominee Fund, ACTBLUE CA-45 2024 Democratic Nominee Fund, ACTBLUE NJ-07 2024 Democratic Nominee Fund, DCCC)

OH PA WI Victory Fund (Sens. Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey, Tammy Baldwin)

New PACs

ACLU Voter Education Fund (Super PAC)

Alliance of Community Health Plans, Inc. Political Action Committee, Inc. (PAC)

American Coalition for Rural Engagement Inc. Political Action Committee (ACRE PAC) (PAC)

American Muslim Public Affairs Committe (AMPAC) (PAC)

d2 PAC (Super PAC)

MD SENATE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FUND 2024 (PAC)

The Rainey-Smalls Project (Super PAC)

New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS

Alliance Defending Freedom: Alliance Defending Freedom

Alston & Bird LLP: Advanced Medical Technology Association (Advamed)

Brian Glackin & Associates LLC: Adam Terry & Company LLC (O/B/O City Of Jonesboro, Ar)

Capitol Counsel LLC: Franklin Templeton Funds

Capitol Counsel LLC: Provident Bank

Crowell & Moring LLP: Teldor Cables & Systems Ltd.

Delta Development Group, Inc.: Juniata College

Delta Development Group, Inc.: Tioga County Commissioners

Delta Development Group, Inc.: Upper Providence Township

Frost Brown Todd LLC: Law Enforcement Against Drugs (L.E.A.D.)

Hogan Lovells US LLP: Maric Healthcare, LLC

Hogan Lovells US LLP: Openai Opco, LLC

Moran Global Strategies, Inc.: Southeastern Universities Research Association, Inc. (Sura)

Red Maple Consulting, LLC: Chickasaw Inkana Foundation (On Behalf Of The Chickasaw Nation)

Salt Point Strategies: Davis Wright Tremaine On Behalf Of The International Connectivity Coalition

Tch Group, LLC: Vermont Telephone Company

The Conafay Group, LLC: International Rett Syndrome Foundation

The Daschle Group: Engage

The Daschle Group: Stephens Shared Services

The Ingram Group LLC: National Beer Wholesalers Association

New Lobbying Terminations

Forward Global: Syngenta Corporation

Tch Group, LLC: City Of Charleston SC

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