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Friday, March 27, 2020

K Street contemplates the next coronavirus bill - Politico

With Daniel Lippman

K STREET CONTEMPLATES THE NEXT BILL: Now that the House of Representatives has passed the Senate’s $2 trillion coronavirus relief legislation, K Street is trying to figure out what the next bill might look like. “We expect the US Congress will approve at least a fourth and possibly a fifth recovery or stimulus bill, depending on the depth and duration of the crisis facing the country,” the law and lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs wrote in a memo to clients. While it’s not clear exactly what such a bill would look like, there’s talk of including infrastructure or other economic stimulus provisions in it.

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— “Until now, the major hurdle for funding a substantial infrastructure bill had been how to pay for it,” the firm wrote in the memo. “That no longer seems to be the hurdle that for so long has stood in the way of prior legislative efforts.” Lobbyists are already starting to get inquiries from clients about the possibility of getting provisions they favor into such a bill. “If you do that bill in April or May, you have money pumping into the system for the summer construction season,” said Rich Gold, a Democratic lobbyist who heads up Holland & Knight’s public policy and regulation group.

Good afternoon, and welcome to PI. Tips: [email protected]. Twitter: @theodoricmeyer.

MORE DETAILS ON WHAT’S IN THE CURRENT BILL: POLITICO’s Caitlin Emma, Jennifer Scholtes and I rounded up some more of the provisions benefiting special interests in the coronavirus relief bill. The airlines, for instance, used their clout to get tens of billions of dollars in grants and loans included in the bill, but carriers such as American Airlines and Delta Air Lines aren’t the only ones who will benefit from the money. The $25 billion allocated in loans and loan guarantees for the airlines will also benefit “eligible businesses that are certified under part 145 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, and approved to perform inspection, repair, replace, or overhaul services, and ticket agents.”

— The last two words — “ticket agents” — mean that travel agents that book flights will also be able to apply for a piece of the $25 billion. The travel agents fought hard for the provision. While most travel agencies are small enough that they can also apply for Small Business Administration loans, “some of the larger travel management companies and leisure agencies are above that standard and our concern was that they would be left in the lurch,” Genevieve Strand, the American Society of Travel Advisors’ advocacy director, wrote in an email to POLITICO.

— The trade group lobbied House and Senate leadership and pressed members of the Senate Commerce Committee’s aviation subcommittee to help get the words “ticket agents” in the bill. “Our members also sent more than 28,000 grassroots messages to Congress and the Administration,” Strand wrote.

— And as airlines and hotels pressed Congress to include money specifically to help them in the bill, casinos were trying to do the opposite. The industry was blocked from receiving tax breaks extended to other businesses after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. “We always envisioned there could be a possibility that someone would jump out and say, ‘Why are you helping the casinos?’” said Chris Cylke, the American Gaming Association’s top lobbyist.

— The trade group worked with the Nevada delegation in particular — which is more sensitive to the needs of the gambling industry than most — to make sure such restrictions didn’t make their way into the bill, along with fighting for other priorities such as a tax credit for retaining employees.

‘IT’S A PRETTY BIG DEAL’: The Senate’s coronavirus relief bill “includes a potential bonanza for America’s richest real estate investors,” The New York TimesJesse Drucker reports. “Senate Republicans inserted an easy-to-overlook provision on page 203 of the 880-page bill that would permit wealthy investors to use losses generated by real estate to minimize their taxes on profits from things like investments in the stock market. The estimated cost of the change over 10 years is $170 billion.”

— “Under the existing tax code, when real estate investors generate losses from gradually writing down the value of their properties, a process known as depreciation, they can use some of those losses to offset other taxes. The result is that people can enjoy big tax breaks stemming from only-on-paper losses, even if they enjoy big cash profits in the real world.

— “But the use of those losses was limited by the 2017 tax-cut package. The losses could be used only to shelter the first $500,000 of a married couple’s nonbusiness income, such as capital gains from investments. Any leftover losses got rolled over to future years. The new stimulus bill lifts that restriction for three years — this year, and two retroactive years — a boon for couples with more than $500,000 in annual capital gains or income from sources other than their business. That group comprises the top 1 percent of taxpayers, according to Internal Revenue Service data. … ‘It’s a pretty big deal,’ said Peter Buell, who runs tax services for the real estate practice of the accounting firm Marcum.”

CAPITOL COUNSEL ADDS TWO: Capitol Counsel has hired the tax lobbyists Pat Raffaniello and Tim Hanford of Raffaniello & Associates, who will bring their clients with them to the larger firm. They represent clients including Altria, Tyson Foods, UPS and Intuit, the company behind TurboTax, according to disclosure filings. “In light of divided government, joining Capitol Counsel allows our clients to tap into the deep substantive expertise of its extraordinary team of professionals," Raffaniello said in statement.

CRUISE LINES MISS OUT ON AID IN RELIEF BILL: Major cruise lines won’t be eligible for $454 billion in loans backed by the Treasury Department included in the coronavirus relief bill due to language designed to direct the aid to American companies, The Washington Post’s Jonathan O’Connell reports. “Major cruise companies have located their primary headquarters overseas, which for years has allowed them to pay almost no federal taxes and avoid some U.S. regulations.”

— The Cruise Lines International Association “acknowledged Thursday that the major cruise lines weren’t included in the package, despite providing a plan to policymakers, meeting with Vice President Pence, and a phone call from Micky Arison, chairman of the Carnival Corp., to President Trump. ‘For the more than 421,000 people in the United States whose jobs are supported by the cruise industry, we will continue to work with policymakers to help our community recover from the impact of this pandemic,’ said CLIA spokeswoman Bari Golin-Blaugrund.”

BALLARD RAISES MONEY FOR MASTRO’S: Brian Ballard, a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump’s campaign, has turned his efforts to raising money for the staff of Mastro’s Steakhouse, which is across the street from his lobbying firm’s Washington office. The firm, Ballard Partners, has chipped in $5,000, according to a GoFundMe page. “The staff at Mastro's have gone over the moon for us, and the least we can do is help them out while the food service industry is taking a hard hit,” the firm writes on the page.

— The fundraiser is only the latest K Street effort to help the staffs of restaurants frequented by lobbyists that have had to close their doors or switch to takeout only due to coronavirus restrictions, including the Palm, Ocean Prime, Tosca, Morton’s, Bobby Van’s Grill and Kellari Taverna.

New Joint Fundraisers

None

New PACs

PA Stands Up Political Action (Hybrid PAC)
State of Jefferson PAC (Super PAC)

New Lobbying Registrations

Ann Warner LLC: Chambers, Conlon & Hartwell LLC
Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC: Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation
LNE Group: On the Right Track Systems, Inc.
The Normandy Group, LLC: Simma International, LLC

New Lobbying Terminations

Neale Creek LLC: The Glover Park Group on behalf of Population Institute
Seventh Street Strategies LLC: National Center for Teacher Residencies

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K Street contemplates the next coronavirus bill - Politico
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