With Daniel Lippman

FIRST IN PI — STEIL’S CHIEF HEADS TO K&L GATES: Ryan Carney has joined K&L Gates as a government affairs adviser. Carney has spent the past nine years on the Hill, most recently serving as chief of staff to Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), who chairs the House Administration Committee. Before that he worked for former Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), the NRCC and former Sen. Sam Brownback.

— In an interview, Carney said that he was attracted to K&L Gates’ reputation for bipartisanship and their depth of executive branch experience. “I’ve just found in my time on the Hill that you need relationships on both sides to get things done,” he told PI, adding that both parties’ slim congressional majorities only heighten the need to reach across the aisle.

— “Being in the minority last Congress, the Democrats did accomplish a fair amount,” he said, though he joked that he and his former boss weren’t necessarily “thrilled” about all of those accomplishments as Republicans. “You can get stuff done in a narrowly divided Congress. So that’s my hope, is that I can work to advance client goals on some of the big things that we’ve got left to do for the remainder of this year and next year.”

THAT’S ONE WAY TO CELEBRATE THE SALE: Washington Commanders President Jason Wright and the team’s head of public affairs Joe Maloney hosted a fundraiser last night for Maryland Democratic Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks, the executive of Prince George’s County (home to the Commanders’ FedEx Field) — fresh off the completion last week of the sale of Washington’s NFL franchise.

— SPOTTED at the fundraiser, which was held at Maloney’s home in Bethesda, per a tipster: Shari Yost Gold and Maia Hunt Estes of Invariant, Jason Gold of Resolute Public Affairs, Brian Parks of Locust Street Group, Ken Biberaj of Savills USA and Valerie Biberaj of the Commanders, Tim Lim of Lim Consulting Services, Marc Brumer of The Herald Group, Rob Hawkins of BerlinRosen, J.R. Clark of Squire Patton Boggs and Dana Thompson of Fulcrum Public Affairs.

FEINSTEIN AIDE HEADS TO K STREET: Rachel Gorsky Bombach has joined Kasowitz Benson Torres as a policy adviser after departing the Hill earlier this year. She spent the past four years working for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), most recently serving as the senator’s legislative director. Before that, she served as director of the National Security Council in the Obama administration. Bombach said that she expects she’ll register to lobby, and that her portfolio will focus on national security and defense issues for a “range of clients.”

Happy Tuesday and welcome to PI, where we’re sending our heartiest congrats to PI contributor extraordinaire Daniel Lippman and Sophia Narrett on their nuptials this past weekend (more deets here!). Send lobbying tips: [email protected]. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

GIG COMPANIES TAKE AIM AT SU: Flex, the coalition of gig companies that launched last year to protect the industry’s business model, “is demanding the Biden administration refrain from issuing a high-profile rule on gig workers until a Senate-confirmed secretary heads the department,” POLITICO’s Jennifer Haberkorn reports.

— In a letter to President Joe Biden on Monday, the group’s chief executive, Kristin Sharp, argued that any new rules and regulations issued by Julie Su while serving as the acting head of the Labor Department would be on shaky legal ground — echoing warnings from Republicans and offering a likely preview of the challenges Su faces since the White House has opted to keep her in the role indefinitely in light of Su’s uncertain confirmation prospects.

— “Any action taken to finalize the proposed worker classification regulation under Ms. Su’s current leadership as Acting Secretary would circumvent the Senate’s constitutional role of providing advice and consent on nominees,” wrote Sharp, whose group opposed Su’s nomination and represents Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Grubhub, Instacart, Shipt and HopSkipDrive. “The Department should not finalize its worker classification proposal before having a permanent Secretary.”

— App-based companies have thrown up fierce resistance to efforts to re-classify their workers as employees rather than independent contractors, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a 2020 fight over a California ballot referendum and bulking up their footprints in Washington as the Biden administration has sought to do the same.

FLYING IN: The American Retirement Association is in town this week to push for a series of fixes to last year’s bipartisan retirement bill. They’ve got more than 100 meetings scheduled, including 18 member-level huddles with lawmakers including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

— Members of the group will ask for changes to the contribution limits for so-called starter 401(k) plans and a fix to lawmakers’ unintended elimination of catch-up contributions beginning next year, and they’ll also push lawmakers to oppose the creation of a federally sponsored retirement program for lower- and middle-income workers.

NORMANDY GROUP LOBBYIST LAUNCHES FIRM: Jim Kiley, who was previously a partner at the Normandy Group for the past five years, has launched his own lobbying firm, Kiley Capitol Solutions. He’s already registered two new clients, the Leading Builders of America — a coalition of homebuilding companies — and the Lowe Syndrome Association, a nonprofit that advocates for more research on Lowe syndrome.

— Before joining Normandy Group, Kiley was director of global public policy at General Motors for more than a decade and a lobbyist for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (now the Alliance for Automotive Innovation).

DEM DONOR PURCHASED HUNTER BIDEN ART: Insider’s Mattathias Schwartz reports that despite the White House’s insistence that buyers of first son Hunter Biden’s paintings would be vetted and kept secret from Hunter, the first son “did, in fact, learn the identity of two buyers, according to three people directly familiar with his own account of his art career,” though the timing of their purchase remains unknown.

— One of the buyers is “Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a Los Angeles real-estate investor and philanthropist. Hirsh Naftali is influential in California Democratic circles and a significant Democratic donor who has given $13,414 to the Biden campaign and $29,700 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this year. In 2022, she hosted a fundraiser headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris.”

— “Insider also obtained internal documents from Hunter Biden’s gallery showing that a single buyer purchased $875,000 worth of his art. The documents do not indicate the buyer’s identity, which is also unknown to Insider at this time.”

— “In July 2022, eight months after Hunter Biden’s first art opening, Joe Biden announced Hirsh Naftali’s appointment to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. It is unclear whether Hirsh Naftali’s purchase of Hunter Biden’s artwork occurred before or after that appointment.”

— “Membership on the commission is an unpaid position often filled by campaign donors, family members, and political allies — the same crowd that often winds up with US ambassadorial appointments,” which an administration official said came at the recommendation of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and had no connection to her art purchases.

— GOP research and data firm co/efficient has named Jim Bognet CEO. He was most recently the Republican congressional nominee in PA-08 and is a longtime political strategist.

— Justine Morgan has joined ROKK Solutions as vice president and Adam Kawut joined as an account executive. Morgan most recently was director of strategic communications at FGS Global and Kuwat was most recently a senior analyst at Engage.

California House Majority Fund (Rudy Salas for Congress, Progressive Majority PAC, Will Rollins for Congress, California Democratic Party)
NY WA Victory Fund (Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Pat Ryan)

Citizen Coalition For Saftey (Hybrid PAC)

Agm Consulting Services, Inc.: Hill Technical Solutions
Blackwell Strategic Group, LLC: Battle Creek Unlimited
Bracewell LLP: Steel Reef Infrastructure Corp
Congressional Partners: Virginia State University
Congressional Partners: Voorhees University
First Amendment Partners LLC: American Kratom Association
First Amendment Partners LLC: Prudential Financial
Hillstaffer, LLC: Materials Research Society
Husch Blackwell Strategies: County Of Merced
Husch Blackwell Strategies: Ventura County Community - Navy Action Partnership
Kiley Capitol Solutions, LLC: Leading Builders Of America
Kiley Capitol Solutions, LLC: Lowe Syndrome Association
Laura Eugster Doyle: Arent Fox LLP On Behalf Of Erie Regional Chamber And Growth Partnership
Laura Eugster Doyle: Arent Fox LLP On Behalf Of Teachstone, Inc.
Lavender Consultants: Coalition For Consumer Choice, Inc.
Liebman & Associates, Inc.: Centrio Energy
Lurkins Consulting, LLC: Covercress, Inc.
Mjs Advisors LLC: Arizona Chamber Of Commerce
Mjs Advisors LLC: Arizona State University
Mjs Advisors LLC: Rare Access Action Project
Mjs Advisors LLC: Texas Association Of Business
Mrs. Garen Fowler: Secular Strategies
Ms. Dana Kuhnline: Appalachian Citizen’s Law Center
Sanders International Group, LLC: Attobahn, Inc.
Splc Action Fund: Splc Action Fund

Capstone National Partners: Bankcroft
Capstone National Partners: Tower Energy
Capstone National Partners: Xylem
Liebman & Associates, Inc.: Chasm Advanced Materials, Inc.