Archive for April, 2016

The Push for Self-Driving Cars

Wednesday, April 27th, 2016 by Matthew Barnes

Taking a big step forward for self-driving cars, Ford Motor Co., Google, Lyft, Uber Technologies Inc. and Volvo Cars joined together to form “The Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets.” The goal of the group, according to Automotive News is to “work with lawmakers, regulators, and the public to realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles…The five companies, which all are working on self-driving cars, say one of the group’s first tasks is to ‘work with civic organizations, municipalities and businesses to bring the vision of self-driving vehicles to America’s roads and highways.’” Reuters reports that in “2014 there were 32,675 fatalities and 2.3 million injured in 6.1 million crashes on U.S. roads. NHTSA says about 94 percent of all traffic crashes are caused by human error.”

The coalition will retain David Strickland as its counsel and spokesman. In a statement Strickland said, “”The best path for this innovation is to have one clear set of federal standards and the coalition will work with policymakers to find the right solutions that will facilitate the deployment of self-driving vehicles.”

Strickland is a Partner in Venable’s Regulatory Group. Before that he “served as the fourteenth Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).  As the top automotive safety official in the United States, he was responsible for executing the agency’s mission to reduce crash-related fatalities and injuries while insuring the highest standards of safety on the nation’s roads.”

Strickland has experience lobbying for auto industry groups according to his lobbying disclosures. He also represents Cox Automotive and the Association of Global Automakers.

The lobbying push for self-driving vehicles has started to grow in recent weeks with other prominent organizations such as General Motors hiring lobbyists to represent their interests on the issue. GM “brought on The Fritts Group, a boutique lobbying firm, to advocate on self-driving cars, connected cars and cybersecurity privacy, according to a disclosure filed” in early-April reports The Hill.

One possible reason for the lobbying push is that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx has previously announced that he planned to develop policy for autonomous cars by this summer. In January, The Verge reports, Secretary Foxx announced that, “within six months, his agency will work with states, manufacturers, and others to develop a “model” state policy for autonomous cars with the goal of creating a consistent national policy.”

Posted in Lobbying News | Comments Off on The Push for Self-Driving Cars

2016 Convention Fundraising

Wednesday, April 20th, 2016 by Matthew Barnes

As we move into summer, those who are closely following the 2016 presidential campaign cycle have begun to start to looking ahead to the national party conventions in July and all the political drama that is expected with them. The Republican National Convention will be hosted in Cleveland from July 18th-21st, with the Democratic National Convention, kicking off the next week in Philadelphia from July 25-28th.  

However, this year’s conventions are facing an unforeseen challenge: corporate sponsorship. Both Republicans and Democrats are having trouble fundraising for their conventions. Politico reports, “Several Fortune 500 companies — including Bank of America, Duke Energy and Time Warner —are taking a pass on chipping in for the Democratic convention in Philadelphia or, with just 100 days to go until the event, won’t say whether they’ll participate. Target, which has had a presence at both parties’ conventions in the past, is joining other companies in skipping this summer’s events in Philadelphia and Cleveland.”

While the reason for not sponsoring a convention will vary from company to company, the New York Times has reported that, “Some of the country’s best-known corporations are nervously grappling with what role they should play at the Republican National Convention, given the likely nomination of Donald J. Trump, whose divisive candidacy has alienated many women, blacks and Hispanics.” This has had a knock-on effect for the Democrats as many companies prefer to give to both the Democrat’s and Republican’s convention, or neither of them. According to the Politico report, “People are more hesitant this time,” said one the lobbyists, who has worked at previous conventions. “And the clients that end up going don’t want to be featured as a marquee sponsor. Before, you would be fighting for signage. Now it’s about, let’s not fight [for] any branding.”

No matter the outcome in regard to fundraising, the conventions are fast becoming a must see political event.

Posted in Campaigns, Lobbying News | Comments Off on 2016 Convention Fundraising

Changing Culture at CREW

Thursday, April 14th, 2016 by Matthew Barnes

In the backdrop of a highly polarizing election year, Bloomberg investigates changing culture at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, a high profile government watchdog group.  According to the group’s website, the “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials who sacrifice the common good to special interests. We advance our mission using a combination of research, litigation, policy advocacy, and media outreach. CREW employs the law as a tool to force officials to act ethically and lawfully and to bring unethical conduct to the public’s attention.”

However, Bloomberg reports that “Over the past two years…some of the group’s most influential work has been quietly dropped. Annual rankings of the “most corrupt” members of Congress and a bi-annual list of the “worst” governors have stopped. A pipeline of in-depth reports on issues ranging from financial markets to timber-industry lobbying has gone dry. The group walked away from a spat over Hillary Clinton’s treatment of e-mails as secretary of state, even after an Inspector General found that CREW’s public records request had been improperly denied.”

The Bloomberg report identifies the addition of prominent Democratic operative David Brock as a Member of the Board in 2014, as a changing point in the direction of CREW’s mission, goals and culture. Demonstrating the changing culture associated with Brock’s arrival, Bloomberg highlights the change in CREW’s legal filings. “By 2013, CREW was filing an average of eight federal lawsuits each year, with a peak of 15 in 2007, public records show. In the nearly two years since Brock arrived in August 2014, the group has filed a total of four.”

Co-Founder and former Board Chair of CREW, Louis Mayberg, has pointed to the more partisan orientation of the organization after Brock’s arrival contributed to his decision to resign from the board in March 2015 saying, “I have no desire to serve on a board of an organization devoted to partisanship.”

Nevertheless, CREW’s Communication Director, Jordan Libowitz, has said “The board membership may change, but we have always maintained the highest level of integrity and absolute independence in the work we do—and that remains the case.”

Posted in Campaign Finance, Lobbying News | Comments Off on Changing Culture at CREW