Bottom Line: Anheuser-Busch lobbies up at the end of a tough year for beer

Beer

The beer company Anheuser-Busch hired two new lobbying firms at the end of a tough year for the company and the beer industry as a whole.

Schertz Strategies registered to lobby on behalf of Anheuser-Busch Companies on agriculture issues, including the farm bill and taxes. Matt Schertz, former staff director of the House Agriculture Committee, will work on the account.

​Anheuser-Busch also hired Langley Consulting to lobby on the farm bill, tax and other agriculture issues. The lobbyist on the account is Reece Langley, who worked as a vice president at the National Cotton Council of America and the USA Rice Federation, and was a legislative assistant to former Rep. Terry Everett (R-Ala.) in the early 2000s.

The new hires add to Anheuser-Busch’s already sprawling lobbying operation: The company spent more than $4 million on federal lobbying in the first nine months of 2023, according to OpenSecrets. 

They also come at a tough time for the company, which saw Bud Light dethroned as the best-selling beer in America after Kid Rock launched a boycott because of the brand’s brief collaboration with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney. U.S. beer shipments are also expected to drop to the lowest level in 25 years by the end of 2023, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Tech

TikTok hired Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies to lobby on issues related to technology and content platform regulation. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress in March as lawmakers threatened to outright ban the platform for its impact on youth mental health and alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party, although that blanket ban has not come to pass. 

The lobbyist on the account is C. Towner French, who spent 15 years on Capitol Hill, including stints as staff on the House Committee on Homeland Security and chief of staff to Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas).

Artificial Intelligence

Center for AI Policy executive director Jason Green-Lowe and operations director Jakub Kraus registered to lobby for the nonprofit. Since mid-July, Green-Lowe and Kraus have been lobbying in support of “legislation that mitigates catastrophic risks from advanced, general-purpose artificial intelligence,” according to the new registrations.