With Daniel Lippman

FARA FRIDAY: The Panamanian government is staffing up its influence operations in the U.S., bringing on two more lobbying firms and the PR giant Edelman just this week, in addition to adding lobbyists in September, according to documents filed with the Justice Department.

— Panama’s Ministry of Commerce and Industries inked a contract with Squire Patton Boggs, which added Edelman as a subcontractor, while BGR signed onto a yearlong agreement worth $720,000 as a subcontractor to the law firm Allen & Overy. The DOJ filings don’t include details about the length or value of Squire’s contract.

— Squire’s Caren Street, Tommy Andrews, Robert Kapla and Ludmilla Kasulke will work to boost the Ministry of Commerce’s outreach in Washington and strengthen the country’s trade relationship with the U.S., according to the filings. The firm is also working with Allen & Overy on behalf of Commerce Minister Federico Alfaro Boyd to negotiate a new contract between a government-owned copper mine and the Canadian mining company that runs it, First Quantum, additional filings show.

— The new hires come several months after the Panamanian embassy retained Potomac Partners for help winning changes to a century-old maritime law. The firm signed a roughly four-month, $100,000 contract to push for Panama’s redesignation as a “distant foreign port” under the Passenger Vessel Services Act, giving the homeland of the strategic shipping corridor a major tourism boost.

— Under the PVSA, only U.S.-owned ships can transport passengers between domestic ports, meaning that cruiseliners, which are virtually entirely foreign-flagged, and other foreign-owned ships must make stops at so-called distant foreign ports before passengers are able to permanently disembark at a different U.S. port than they started at.

— Panama is currently considered a nearby foreign port, as is any other foreign port in Central America, North America, Bermuda, or parts of the Caribbean — meaning that under current law ships that have traveled there may only allow passengers to permanently disembark at the same U.S. port at which they boarded, limiting the options for those traveling there by boat.

— In a copy of its contract filed with the Justice Department, Potomac Partners wrote that “our team will create a narrative that outline[s] the benefits to U.S. national security interests by granting Panama the designation of a Distant Foreign Port,” including highlighting the “economic benefits to a top U.S. ally in Central America and the potential to develop or enhance a new manufacturing base in Latin America as well as the likely favorable economic impacts to the region.”

Happy Friday and welcome to PI. Don’t forget to start thawing your Thanksgiving turkey this weekend — or to pass along your best lobbying and influence tips: [email protected]. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.
JEFFRIES’ K STREET ALUMNI CONT.: Yesterday’s round up of alumni of House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries(D-N.Y.), who officially threw his hat in the ring today to become the party’s next leader, left someone off the list. Lakecia Stickney, who was director of policy and outreach for Jeffries, left his office earlier this year and now lobbies for Comcast.

ANNALS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Former President Donald Trump announced his third presidential bid this week, but Trump’s new campaign committee won’t be able to access the more than $100 million sitting in accounts across his sprawling political operation, due to campaign finance regulations. OpenSecrets’ Taylor Giorno broke down how Trump’s nascent campaign can and can’t tap into the mounds of cash raised by Trump and his allies since losing reelection two years ago.

— “Trump’s federal campaign will be unable to tap into the $98.2 million in his leadership PAC, Save America, and affiliated super PACs. Included in that total is $1.1 million in MAGA PAC, a traditional PAC that was converted from Trump’s former campaign. Because of federal contribution limits, MAGA PAC can contribute only up to $5,000 each to his primary and general election campaigns.”

— “Save America – which accounts for more than $69.7 million of his political operation’s total cash on hand – has been Trump’s main fundraising vehicle since he launched the leadership PAC six days after the 2020 election.”

— “But it legally cannot be converted into a campaign account,” and this week the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC accusing Trump of attempting to skirt campaign finance restrictions by transferring money from his leadership PAC to his newest super PAC.

— “The former president will only be able to access about $13.5 million available in his joint fundraising committees. The statement of candidacy filed on Nov. 15 with the Federal Election Commission lists his Save America joint fundraising committee as an affiliated committee. The joint fundraising committee reported $6.3 million cash on hand as of Sept. 30.”

— “Save America JFC will continue to raise funds that will be split between Trump’s new campaign committee and his Save America leadership PAC at a ratio of 99-to-1, according to his campaign website. In addition to Save America JFC, the former president maintains a small-dollar joint fundraising committee, Trump Make America Great Again, and a high-dollar joint fundraising committee, Trump Victory.”

HOT… ANTITRUST WINTER?:Axios’ Ashley Gold reports that “companies pushing to reel in Big Tech’s behavior convened at the White House Thursday to try and gin up momentum for an antitrust bill in Congress’ lame-duck session.

— “‘We're advocating to make sure it gets its shot and put forward for a vote,’ Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp, told Axios exclusively about the Senate's American Innovation and Choice Online Act. ‘We're really encouraged by their comments, that they're not wavering, competition is important to [President Joe] Biden and nothing has changed on that front.’”

— “Per Stoppelman, White House antitrust adviser Tim Wu and Louisa Terrell, White House director of the office of legislative affairs, were present at the meeting, among other White House staffers. A White House official confirmed the meeting to Axios saying it was ‘productive and thoughtful,’” though opponents of the anti self-preferencing bill maintain it has no chance of passing.

— Several other industries are facing heightened antitrust scrutiny, including grocers Albertsons and Kroger, whose proposed merger will be the subject of a hearing later this month in front of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, Anthony Adragna reports for Congress Minutes. The New York Times’ David McCabe and Ben Sisario also reported today that Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, is the subject of a DOJ antitrust investigation focusing on the company’s power within the live events industry.
FORMER DESANTIS CHIEF HEADS BACK DOWNTOWN: Justin Roth has joined Richmond-based LINK Public Affairs as a partner. Roth previously served as chief of staff to former Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), and before that was the top aide to potential 2024 White House hopeful Ron DeSantis during the Florida governor’s stint as a congressman. Roth, who also lobbied on behalf of several trade groups downtown, will lead LINK’s D.C. office and work with clients in both D.C. and throughout Virginia.

LOBBYISTS, HILL STAFFERS LAUNCH NEW AAPI GROUP: In the wake of several turbulent years for the Asian American Pacific Islander community marked by rising levels of racist attacks and an increased focus on the lack of AAPI representation in positions of power, a pair of lobbyists has launched a new organization aimed at connecting AAPI staff around Washington with the aim of building out a pipeline to help rectify that issue.

— The group unofficially formed during the pandemic, when Neal Patel, a lobbyist at Alpine Group, and a former Trump White House alum, began coordinating Zooms between AAPI staffers on the Hill and around K Street to keep the community connected.

— The Zooms kept growing through word of mouth, said Patel, who eventually realized that the success of the virtual get-togethers owed in part to a larger void in Washington. He and Jed Bhuta of Tower Nineteen officially launched the Asian American Pacific Islander Lobbyists Association earlier this week. The group moved off of the computer screen into real life with a happy hour at the Capitol Hill haunt Hawk ‘N’ Dove last night.

— The AAPI Lobbyists Association follows in the footsteps of similar affinity groups around Washington, like the Washington Government Relations Group, Hispanic Lobbyists Association and Q-Street, which also push for more diversity in Washington’s policymaking community. Patel’s organization, which has yet to announce formal leaders, will work to bring together AAPI lobbying, policy and public affairs professionals across town and boost AAPI representation by providing professional development, networking and mentoring opportunities for its members.

SPOTTED at the AAPI Lobbyists Association happy hour, per a tipster: Patel, Bhuta, Annie Nguyen of the California State University System, Ben Kane of Rep. Jimmy Gomez’s (D-Calif.) office, Stephanie Penn of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office, Raj Shah of Fox Corp., Nu Wexler of Seven Letter, Kai Hirabayashi of Amazon, Ed An of Google, Ninio Fetalvo and Anang Mittal of Brunswick Group, Catalina Tam of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office, Michael Wong of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (D-Ariz.) office, Alex Huang of Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman’s (D-N.J.) office, Sonali Desai of Rep. Judy Chu’s (D-Calif.) office, Dao Nguyen of Cornerstone Government Affairs, Amanda Slater of Mastercard, Saat Alety of Federal Hall Policy Advisors, Tonya Wu of Jeffries’ office, Ilhaam Jaffer of BlueCross BlueShield Association, Akshai Datta of Astellas, Alisa La of McDonald’s, Charli Huddleston of the National Association of Manufacturers, Allison Dong of Sen. Mike Braun’s (R-Ind.) office, Michio Aida of Epidaurus Health and Andrew Noh of Rep. Marilyn Strickland’s (D-Wash.) office.

— And at a Peanuts-inspired Friendsgiving happy hour hosted by Glen Echo Group, per a tipster: Margaret Harding McGill and Charlie Meisch of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Competitive Carriers Association’s Tim Donovan, Cornerstone Government Affairs’ John Buscher, BARLOON.CO’s Bill Barloon, Stanford Internet Observatory's John Perrino, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Vickie Wodarcyk, Public Knowledge's Harold Feld, White Oak Communications’ John Taylor, Mozilla’s Jennifer Hodges, Amazon’s Dan O’Connor, Quadra Partners’ Roger Sherman and Glen Echo Group's Maura Corbett, Amy Schatz and team.

— Jennifer Walton has been promoted to senior vice president for U.S. policy and government relations at Pfizer and Emily Mueller has been promoted to head of congressional affairs.

— GovExec has promoted Aaron Heffron to president of research and forecasting.

— Radha Adhar is now special assistant to the president in the office of legislative affairs at the White House. She most recently was director of legislative affairs at the Council on Environmental Quality.

None.

CHANGE AMERICA PAC (PAC)
Faith Family & Duty PAC (PAC)
Final Fight Fund (Super PAC)
I-95 PAC (Super PAC)
People's Party of USA (Super PAC)

Bachner Group: Dark Pulse
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Kiss The Ground
Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Bionica Labs
Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Crowdstrike, Inc.
Dinino Associates, LLC: Cornerstone Government Affairs Obo Nervgen Pharma Corp.
Fortescue Future Industries: Fortescue Future Industries
Fti Government Affairs: Eastman Chemical Company
Harbinger Strategies, LLC: H&R Block, Inc.
K&L Gates, LLP: Indie Semiconductor, Inc.
Pioneer Public Affairs: Arcadia Power, Inc.
Strategic Health Care: Benefis Health System
S. Vaca & Associates, LLC: Flight Safety International, Inc.
Todd Strategy Group: Netlist, Inc.
Van Scoyoc Associates: City Of Fort Payne, Alabama
Van Scoyoc Associates: X-Bow Launch Systems Inc.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP: Jenny Lovblom
Kellen Company: Infant Nutrition Council Of America
Kogovsek & Associates, Inc.: City Of Pueblo Co
Potomac Strategic Development Company, LLC: National Association Of State Fire Marshals
Strategies 360: Bitwise Industries
Strategies 360: Verily Life Sciences LLC
Todd Strategy Group: Organize.Org