PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT: S-3 Group and Banner Public Affairs announced today that they are forming tax practices for their clients ahead of a big taxation fight in Congress next year — with members including Capitol Hill and Treasury Department veterans. — Banner’s tax, tariff and trade practice is co-chaired by Jesse Appleton, the firm’s co-founder and partner, and Matt Bormet, senior vice president of the firm. Appleton previously served as a senior adviser to Treasury Undersecretary Hank Paul and was a top adviser in the Senate. Bormet has worked under Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) on energy, transportation and finance policy. — S-3 Group announced its tax practice will be led by Shimmy Stein, then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) senior policy adviser; Malloy McDaniel, former senior policy adviser to longtime Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell on legislation related to business groups; Kevin Casey, former policy director for Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.); and Marty Reiser, former policy director for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. — Scalise led a closed-door meeting today to lay out priorities for House Republicans, where he said locking in Trump’s tax cuts is a high priority on the list. The president-elect’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is set to expire by the end of 2025, and with Trump returning to the White House and a GOP majority secured in both chambers, a final tax package could resemble the 2017 tax law.
— “Our team is ready to support organizations of all sizes and across industries to ensure their priorities are secured in the coming tax policy negotiations. Clients will be vying for guidance and insights in a crowded space and with our new tax practice, S-3 is poised to deliver a surround sound approach from government relations to strategic communications and digital to post wins,” said John Scofield, S-3 Group’s managing partner, said in a statement. WHAT IPAA WANTS: The Independent Petroleum Association of America has sent Trump’s transition team its policy wishlist for his administration, which includes “equitable tax policies” for the energy sector, permitting reforms, rolling back the methane fee and putting an end to the Biden administration’s pause on new LNG permits. ICYMI: CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’: “Actum, the global consulting and lobbying firm led by high-powered figures in Washington, New York and London, as well as Los Angeles and Sacramento, is acquiring one of the California Capitol’s most familiar faces,” our Chris Cadelago reports. — “Scott Wetch and his firm — Carter, Wetch and Associates — exclusively told POLITICO that he is joining Actum’s growing operations in Sacramento. Wetch, a leading lobbyist for powerful labor unions who also represents corporate giants like Amazon and Verizon, will bolster the Sacramento footprint of Actum, which was founded in late 2021 by former partners who defected from Mercury Public Affairs.” WHO’S MEETING WITH TRUMP: Trump is set to meet with cryptocurrency mogul Brian Armstrong in the coming days, the Wall Street Journal’s Brian Schwartz reports. Trump and the Coinbase CEO are “expected to discuss personnel appointments for his second administration” in what will be their first meeting since the election. — Armstrong, who along with his cryptocurrency exchange gave $49 million to a group of industry funded super PACs this cycle, “has already publicly weighed in on who should be the next leader of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Armstrong said on X he believes Hester Peirce, a Trump SEC commissioner, is the ‘best choice’ to chair the SEC.” TRUMP’S ETHICS RESISTANCE: “Days before Donald Trump assumed the presidency in 2017, he told reporters that he was handing over ‘complete and total control’ of his real estate company to his two eldest sons,” The Washington Post’s Michael Kranish and Jonathan O’Connell write. — “He also said he turned down a $2 billion real estate deal in Dubai, and, after having sold off all his stock, vowed to follow a series of self-imposed ethical guidelines. Eight years later, as Trump prepares to return to the White House, he has not yet made any similar moves to avoid financially benefiting from being president.” — As a result, “Trump is poised to take office with extraordinary wealth when the government’s ability to monitor his ethics is far weaker than in his first presidency — and when there are more avenues for industries, foreign governments and rich patrons to seek to influence him.” MEET ME AT OUR SPOT: Now that Trump is returning to the White House without a Trump property of his own in D.C., Washingtonian’s Jessica Sidman outlined some local spots the president-elect’s crowd will likely spend their time. — Restaurants and bars such as The Big Board on H Street and known establishment favorites like Cafe Milano and The Capital Grille on Pennsylvania Avenue made the list. And, of course, the Waldorf Astoria, previously known as the Trump Hotel, was also mentioned. — “While Trump’s name is no longer on the front, the hotel might still be a hangout for the same crowd out of old habit. A big difference now is that restaurateur José Andrés, an outspoken critic of Trump, has taken over the lobby restaurant with an outpost of the Bazaar. Even so, Republican lobbyist Mark Smith says he wouldn’t be surprised to find Trump himself return to the hotel as both a nostalgia and power move.” END OF AN ERA: Republicans will also have one less place to gather now that Charlie Palmer, the Senate-side steakhouse that has long been a staple of the politico social scene, announced it will close its doors next week after 22 years due to an impasse with the restaurant’s landlord over a new lease, per Sidman. — We probably don’t need to tell most of you how much of an institution Charlie Palmer is (though this X user captures it pretty well), so PI crunched some numbers to help quantify the standing that the steakhouse has in the world of Washington’s power brokers. — Since opening in 2003, the restaurant has brought in nearly $8.5 million from federal political committees, according to FEC disclosures. That figure is close to a million dollars — $932,000 — in the current cycle alone (at least through mid-October). RFK JR. OPPO EFFORT RAMPS UP: “Democratic-aligned health care advocacy groups are putting together a strategy to fight Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be HHS secretary,” our Megan Messerly reports. — More than 200 people from several dozen of those groups held an organizing call on Monday to strategize over which Republican senators to lean on and identify the most effective outreach, according to Protect Our Care’s Brad Woodhouse. — Protect Our Care has launched a war room “focused on persuading not only GOP moderates” such as Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, but also McConnell, a polio survivor, and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who is expected to face a tough reelection battle in 2026. SPOTTED at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View last night for a reception thrown by the National Alliance to Stop Impaired Driving, per a tipster: Ana Fitzgibbons of Diageo in Society, Kristin Bodenstedt of Bacardi, Jonathan Adkins of the Governor’s Highway Safety Association, Rick Birt of the D.C. Highway Safety Office, Chris Swonger of Responsibility.org and the Distilled Spirits Council, Leslie Kimball of Responsibility.org and Darrin Grondel of the National Alliance to Stop Impaired Driving and Responsibility.org.
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