5 lobbying fights roiling Congress

When the Senate sent the House a massive aviation bill Thursday, one of the few remaining targets for lobbyists flew out the window.

Lobbyists have been eyeing must-pass bills to advance their clients’ priorities, and the advancement of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill means they have one fewer vehicle between now and the end of the 118th Congress. 

While there is still plenty of work to be done between now and the November election, some of this season’s biggest lobbying battles may have to wait until the end-of-year funding packages or for the new Congress to be sworn in in January.

“Although I’m telling clients not to expect major sweeping proposals outside of annual authorizations to be passed before the election, I am encouraging them to stay engaged in federal policymaking now more than ever, or risk being caught flatfooted,” said Ryan Taylor, founder and CEO of 440 Strategies, the new public affairs shop he launched after six years at Forbes Tate.

Karishma Page, a partner at K&L Gates, told The Hill there is “demand for vehicle space for real and meaningful policy” and said “the narrative that Congress is not legislating is not accurate.”

But tacking on additional asks could also slow down policymaking in what’s already expected to be the least productive Congress in decades.

Lawmakers have sent President Biden just more than 70 bills since January 2023, according to Congress.gov, including massive appropriations bills and limping stopgap measures as Republicans grappled with the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the weeks-long battle to find his replacement and the growing pains of newly-elected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

In this Congress, however, one crisis or misstep can shake loose stubborn stagnation, as evidenced by the swift passage of the TikTok divest-or-ban bill on the foreign aid package.

Despite steep odds, lobbyists are racing to pass — or pause — a number of high-profile priorities for their clients. Here are five of the biggest lobbying battles that could come to a head in the home stretch of the 118th Congress.

Banks, retailers brawl over ‘swipe fee’ bill

The country’s largest credit card companies are under attack —  or at least, that’s the message the industry has been pushing since Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) reintroduced the Credit Card Competition Act that summer.

The bill would require large financial institutions — those with assets topping $100 billion — to offer at least two credit card payment processing networks. One of those options can’t be Visa or Mastercard, which the lawmakers say have a “duopoly” over the “swipe fee” market, of which they currently control a combined 80 percent.

The bill’s detractors say that if the bill passes, it would take away popular rewards programs, primarily benefit big box stores and do nothing to lower costs for consumers.

But Durbin, Marshall and the bill’s supporters in the retail industry have been pushing to attach the bill as an amendment to one of the large legislative packages like the National Defense Authorization Act, saying it’s crucial to reduce operating costs for small businesses and give them more leverage to negotiate with credit card giants.

From the floor of the Senate on Wednesday, Marshall decried the opposition of industry lobbyists to the bill.

“The Visa-MasterCard duopoly has used money and influence in Washington to turn politicians’ eyes away from predatory swipe fees,” said Marshall. “I never could have imagined the uphill battle we’d face up here to do the right thing for doing what’s best for hardworking Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck.”

Farm bill fight brewing over food assistance programs

Agribusiness and hunger prevention advocates are jockeying to get their priorities in the latest iteration of the farm bill, the multiyear package that dictates agricultural and food programs including SNAP and WIC.

While the sprawling package is teeming with granular fights, including the National Confectioners Association’s long-standing efforts to reform the U.S. Sugar Program, the biggest battle brewing is over the future of food assistance programs.

Nutrition programs like SNAP typically receive the largest share of funding in the farm bill, and that amount increased following 2021 revisions to the Thrifty Food Plan, the foods that make up a nutritious diet as designed by the Department of Agriculture. 

Republicans are proposing cuts to nutrition programs and conservation funding in the Inflation Reduction Act to fund other programs to help farmers navigate higher prices and extreme weather impacting their livelihoods.

That’s forced anti-hunger advocates including Feeding America to lobby up to defend those programs, with the Feeding Alabama chapter even retaining a former top aide recently retired Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to make their case.

The Republican-led House and the Democrat-led Senate released summaries of their versions of the farm bill this month, which show the chambers remain divided over how to fund food and conservation programs.

The last farm bill passed in 2018, and Congress has already extended the deadline for the latest version of the bill to Sept. 30. That could get punted again to the next Congress, after the election decides whether Republicans or Democrats control the House, Senate and White House, which means whoever comes out on top may have the upper hand in advancing their version of the bill.

Cannabis banking bill has cloudy outlook

After a Senate committee passed a cannabis banking bill for the first time ever last September, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) vowed to bring the SAFER Banking Act to the floor for a vote “as quickly as possible.”

Eight months later, that vote has not materialized.

But Schumer and House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) met last month to discuss attaching the cannabis banking bill and stablecoin legislation to FAA reauthorization, Politico reported. Even though that plan didn’t pan out, it sets up an interesting potential compromise for one of the other must-pass bills later this session.

McHenry is retiring at the end of this Congress, and shepherding the passage of landmark crypto legislation could cement his legacy as lawmakers weigh how to regulate the broader industry. Crypto companies and industry groups have been championing comprehensive crypto legislation on Capitol Hill, arguing the industry, recently roiled by high-profile scandals including the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX and the conviction of its once-illustrious founder Sam Bankman-Fried, needs rules of the road.

Criminal justice reform advocates have pushed for amendments to the SAFER Banking Act, including the Harnessing Opportunities by Pursuing Expungement Act, which would help states expunge cannabis convictions, and the Gun Rights and Marijuana Act, which would strip federal restrictions on firearms sales to people who use marijuana.

PBMs resist reform efforts

Last summer and fall, advertisements blaming pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), intermediaries in the prescription drug supply chain, for high drug prices were everywhere. 

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which bankrolled the ads, has been lobbying for legislation that could make PBMs more transparent alongside unlikely allies. The AARP, which supported the Inflation Reduction Act drug price provisions opposed by PhRMA, has also endorsed several PBM reform bills including the PBM Transparency Act, Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability Act and Patients Before Middleman Act.

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), the trade association representing PBMs, spent a record $15.4 million on federal lobbying in 2023 as it combats legislation that “fundamentally misconstrues” the role of the industry and “risks increasing drug costs,” as PCMA spokesperson Greg Lopes told The Hill last fall.

The congressional funding bills passed in March did not include PBM reforms, and Reps. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) and James Comer (R-Ky.) told The Hill Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack in March that PBM reform faces an uncertain future this session despite bipartisan, bicameral support.

Railroad reform stalls at the station

In the wake of the disastrous derailment of a Norfolk Southern trail in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, 2023, lawmakers called for changes to railroad safety and regulations. But in the more than one year since the accident, the palpable outrage in the immediate aftermath has cooled, as has the urgency to pass the bill.

Lawmakers quick coalesced around the Railway Safety Act, introduced by Ohio Sens. JD Vance (R) and Sherrod Brown (D) after the accident. But an amendment by Vance and Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) delayed improvements to tank cars from May 2025 to December 2028 after industry lobbyists insisted the timeline was unrealistic, The Lever first reported, prompting critics to accuse Vance of watering down his own bill.

The committee sent the bill to the Senate floor, but it has not come up for a vote. That could put Brown in a tough spot as he heads into one of the most competitive races this fall.

But a National Transportation Safety Board report on the East Palestine derailment is expected in June, and its findings could spur Congress to revisit the bill. During a House budget committee hearing last month, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged Congress to advance the bill.

“We are taking every step that does not require an Act of Congress — but we are also continuing to call on Congress to pass the bipartisan Railway Safety Act, which would provide much-needed authorities to keep passengers, workers, and communities safe,” Buttigieg said.