New app coalition will lobby on small business loans – Politico

With David Beavers and Daniel Lippman

NEW APP COALITION WILL LOBBY ON SMALL BUSINESS LOANS: McGuireWoods Consulting has started a new coalition to advocate on behalf of app companies, including on issues related to coronavirus. The App Coalition will be led by Gregory Guice, a lobbyist at the firm. Its members include Booking.com, Priceline, Kayak and OpenTable, all of which are subsidiaries of Booking Holdings; the Dutch travel app Fritzy; Blix; and Perry Street Software, the company behind the LGBTQ dating apps SCRUFF and Jackd.

Theres no shortage of trade groups for tech companies, of course, including the Internet Association and The App Association. But Michael Drobac, another McGuireWoods lobbyist involved in the effort, said those trade groups were dominated by behemoths such as Microsoft and Apple, while the new coalition will represent the interests of smaller app companies. One of The App Coalitions first priorities is convincing the Congress to include language in the next coronavirus relief bill allowing startups to receive small business loans even if larger investors hold stakes in them.

NEW BUSINESS: The coronavirus lobbying boom continues. Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck has registered for eight more clients and plans to lobby for at least seven of them on issues related to the coronavirus, according to disclosure filing. They include the movie theater chain AMC and Gogo Inc., the inflight wireless provider. The trade group U.S. Mortgage Insurers has hired Kara Ward of Holland & Knight after bringing on 1607 Strategies last month.

And former Rep. Luke Messer (R-Ind.) of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath has registered to lobby for Instacart on an Agriculture Department pilot program to provide online access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Its the second lobbying firm Instacart has hired in recent months.

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A NEW FRONT IN THE BATTLE OVER BUSINESS INTERRUPTION INSURANCE: A litigation campaign against the countrys property insurers that began with celebrity chefs and their restaurants has now expanded into a host of other businesses, The Wall Street Journals Leslie Scism and Brody Mullins report. The latest plaintiff: a nonprofit focused on fighting anti-Semitism. A trial lawyer leading a coalition of U.S. businesses fighting insurance companies on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in federal court in California to open a new front in the fight to get insurers to pay coronavirus-related claims.

The plaintiff is the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, an educational and human-rights advocacy business that has been closed to the public since March 19 under a stay-at-home order by the citys mayor. The centers case, and two others filed by lawyer John Houghtaling, could be instrumental in determining whether insurers will be on the hook for business interruption coronavirus claims totaling potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in claims.

LENDERS COMPLAIN ABOUT SMALL BUSINESS LOAN SYSTEM: Trade groups including the American Bankers Association and the Credit Union National Association are urging the Small Business Administration to shore up its system for processing emergency small business loans or explain why it can't be done, POLITICOs Zachary Warmbrodt reports. In a letter to SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza, nine bank and credit union groups said their members were having significant problems submitting loan applications to the SBA under the Paycheck Protection Program, which Congress created to help fight layoffs during the pandemic. Lenders have seen huge demand for the small business loans, which can be forgiven if employers keep their payrolls.

"Quite simply, it is taking too long to submit loans and get these funds where they need to go," the trade groups wrote in the letter. "We respectfully request that you help us resolve these access issues."

DEMOCRATS, CORPORATE AMERICA PUSHING HEALTH INSURANCE BAILOUT: Big businesses and powerful Democrats are aligning around a proposal to bail out employer health plans in the wake of staggering losses to the insurance industry, as some worry that a surge in uninsured Americans could give new life to a stalled push for Medicare for All, POLITICOs Susannah Luthi reports. The business and labor interests, who have strong economic motives to keep the current system of employer-based care, are rallying behind a Democratic effort to subsidize temporary extensions of newly unemployed Americans workplace health plans in Congress next coronavirus rescue package.

But to some progressives who cheered Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) Medicare-for-All plan, the crisis has exposed what they see as the folly of tying employment to health coverage. Sanders, who's advocating for an emergency version of his health plan during the pandemic, ripped the idea of propping up an expensive employer system in a POLITICO op-ed Tuesday. Not only would health insurance corporations make massive profits off the plan profits that come at the cost of the American taxpayers but it would still leave tens of millions uninsured or underinsured, Sanders wrote.

ADVAMED ASKS FOR MORE TARIFF RELIEF: The U.S. medical technology industry says the Trump administration needs to provide more tariff relief to a broad range of parts and components for ventilators and medical imaging equipment currently subject to punitive import penalties on China, POLITICOs Adam Behsudi reports. We believe Section 301 tariffs on all of these products should be removed without a fixed termination date or, [if] that is not possible, at least until one year after the World Health Organization declares the end of the coronavirus pandemic, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, or AdvaMed, wrote in a letter to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

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The Independent Community Bankers of America has hired Joel Williquette as senior vice president of operational risk policy. He previously worked for Capital Credit Union in Green Bay, Wis.

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Colorado Common Sense County Leadership (PAC) Cornerstone PAC (PAC) Oversight Council of Florida (Super PAC) VOICE PAC (Leadership PAC: Rep. Antonio Delgado)

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: AMP Robotics Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Gogo, Inc. Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: McWhinney Real Estate Services, Inc. Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: One Call Corporation Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Route 66 Ventures Clark Hill, PLC: Boyd Watterson GSA REIT Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP: Financial Services Forum Colyandro + Frank Public Affairs: American Federation for Children, Inc. Consilium Consulting: United States Telecom Association Constantinople & Vallone Consulting LLC: Full Stack Modular LLC Constantinople & Vallone Consulting LLC: Young Adult Institute, Inc. Covington & Burling LLP: Aimbridge Hospitality, LLC Covington & Burling LLP: Grossman Company Properties, Inc. Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP: Maplebear, Inc. D/B/A Instacart Holland & Knight LLP: U.S. Mortgage Insurers Ice Miller Strategies LLC: Children's Hospital Association of Texas K&L Gates LLP: Clark Street on behalf of Qorvo Mr. Illann P Power: Mr. Illann P Power Paul Hastings LLP: Integral Communities Stonington Global: Timo Kipp The McManus Group: GRAIL, Inc. The Petrizzo Group, Inc.: Magnolia Medical Technologies The Summerill Group LLC: McKinley County Detention Center The Summerill Group LLC: Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office The Summerill Group LLC: Spokane County Detention Services

JLV Strategies LLC: US Tamil Political Action Council Tompkins Strategies, LLC: Alliance of Community Health Plans

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New app coalition will lobby on small business loans - Politico