Lobbying

US, Arizona chambers run ads targeting Sinema, Kelly over reconciliation bill

by Karl Evers-Hillstrom - 08/02/22 10:51 AM ET

In this July 16, 2019, file photo, Senate Security and Governmental Affairs Committee member Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., listens to witnesses during a hearing on 2020 census on Capitol Hill in Washington. More than her shock of purple hair or unpredictable votes Sinema is perhaps best known for doing the unthinkable in Washington: spending time on the Republican side of the aisle. Her years in Congress have been a whirlwind of political style and perplexing substance, an anti-war liberal-turned-deal-making centrist who now finds herself at the highest levels of power. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Arizona Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday ran ads pressuring Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) to vote against their party’s climate and tax spending package.

The ads, which are running in two of Arizona’s largest newspapers, push back on the bill’s proposals to enact a minimum 15 percent tax on large corporations, empower the federal government to negotiate drug prices and close the carried interest loophole, arguing that they would reduce jobs and investment in the Grand Canyon State.

The last-ditch ad campaign from the nation’s largest corporate lobbying group comes as Democrats aim to swiftly pass a climate and tax spending bill agreed to by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

K Street generally views Sinema as the only senator who could derail the bill, which only needs the support of all 50 Senate Democrats to pass the upper chamber. The Arizona senator, who has previously opposed changes to carried interest that would hit private equity profits, has not commented on the spending package.

“While many of the misguided proposals in previous versions of the reconciliation bill are now on the cutting room floor, we’re advocating against these economically harmful taxes and price controls,” Neil Bradley, the U.S. Chamber’s chief policy officer, said in a statement. “They all need to come out and that is what the Chamber is focused on achieving in the final version.”

The Chamber’s ad tells Arizona residents to call Sinema and Kelly and tell them to “keep sticking up for Arizona employers and workers” by opposing the reconciliation bill.

Dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, the bill would invest $369 billion in clean energy programs and reduce the deficit by $300 billion over the next decade in addition to enacting provisions to lower drug prices and extend expiring health care subsidies.

The spending package is funded by measures that would hurt the bottom line of private equity giants, large pharmaceutical companies and corporations that receive more than $1 billion in annual profits, sparking a last-minute lobbying campaign directed primarily at Sinema.