A tax fight brewing surely means one thing: lots of money to go around on K Street.
With a big tax bill on deck when the Trump tax cuts expire in 2025, companies are staffing up to flex their influence.
There have been more than 100 registrations for lobbying on taxes since the start of July, according to congressional lobbying records.
Here’s a sampling of recent notable moves:
– The Carlyle Group, the private equity giant, hired former Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) and Chris Jones at Baker & Hostetler to work on “[m]ultiple provisions within the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” and more.
– Hollier & Associates picked up the American Council of Life Insurers for lobbying on taxes, including the expiring Trump tax cuts. Will Hollier is Sen. Mike Crapo’s (R-Idaho) former chief of staff. Crapo will be Senate Finance Committee chair if Republicans flip the Senate.
– IBM hired Washington Tax & Public Policy Group to work on issues related to corporate and international taxes. Both are part of the 2025 debate.
– Brownstein signed ConocoPhillips, the oil and gas company, for work on energy, corporate and international taxes.
– The RATE Coalition tapped Michelle Dimarob to lobby on the corporate tax rate. Dimarob recently founded a firm after leaving Altria, the tobacco company. RATE represents some of the biggest U.S. companies including American Express, AT&T, Capital One, GM and Walmart.
– ADM, a major food processing company, hired Roskam and Jones at Baker & Hostetler to work on policies related to the Trump tax cuts and Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ 2022 tax package. That wasn’t ADM’s only tax hire.
– Fierce Government Relations picked up Stripe, the payments platform, for work including on the Trump tax cuts.
– The Bipartisan Policy Center’s political arm brought on a team of former GOP leadership aides at Harbinger Strategies to lobby on tax, including “tax reform.”
Q3 mentions: The tax fight is also popping up in quarterly lobbying filings as work intensifies on the 2025 debate.
To name a few, mentions of lobbying on the Trump tax cuts cropped up in Q3 disclosures from the AFL-CIO, Cardinal Health, Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, Pfizer and Starbucks.
Election angle: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce just announced a seven-figure ad buy focused on the 2025 tax fight. The ads are airing in competitive races over the next two weeks — just in time for Election Day.
The new ads praise 16 incumbents, including Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) and Michelle Steel (R-Calif.). The U.S. Chamber is backing only one Democrat with the buy: Maine Rep. Jared Golden, who’s known for bucking his party.
A few of the new ads go after several Democrats, including Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), the most vulnerable Senate incumbent.
