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Political consultants or lobbyists need the right tools to effectively represent the interest of their clients to state and federal policymakers.Every opportunity you take to discuss your agenda with key representatives increases the likelihood that they will understand your issues and respond more favorably. Successful lobbying takes persistence and the ability to present well-organized and credible arguments. Let’s explore some tips for effective policy advocacy and using POLITICO Pro to achieve maximum success.

Achieving Success as a Lobbyist: Skills and Tips

Lobbyists or government affairs representatives need key skills and resources to be effective:

  • In-depth knowledge of issues and policies and a deep understanding of the political and legislative process
  • Strong communication skills, including the ability to negotiate and build inter-personal relationships
  • A network of contacts in government, media, and industries
  • Solid analytical and research skills to gather and analyze data, trends, and patterns
  • Financial support for research, outreach, and grassroots organizing
  • Ability to work collaboratively with other stakeholders to share insights and amplify impact
  • A clear sense of ethics and integrity to ensure their efforts are transparent, fair, and lawful

Map out your outreach plan using POLITICO Pro’s 2023 Congressional Calendar

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Optimizing the Use of POLITICO Pro: 5 Essential Tips for Lobbying

Suppose that you work in the energy and natural resources industries, you can take advantage of POLITICO Pro’s tools to help you stay ahead of key developments and grow your network of contacts.  Here are some ways a POLITICO Pro subscription can be essential to your success:

  1. Stay informed: Gain a significant advantage with our top-notch policy reporting. With more than 300 journalists covering 22 major policy areas, we are the nation’s leading newsroom for policy news. Our energy coverage focuses on the environment, climate, distribution, infrastructure, renewable energy, oil, gas, and more. Pro exclusive stories on the energy sector include:

    Pro also helps you stay current with information on the latest energy bills and rule proposals, hearings, the politics behind legislative and regulatory developments, and other critical updates. Customize your news feed and set up alerts to receive timely notifications on specific energy-related issues that matter to you.

  2. Use data: Build persuasive arguments for lawmakers using POLITICO Pro’s exclusive data and analysis that can help you demonstrate the impact of your issue on constituents and the broader community. Gain an extra edge with Pro Premium’s in-depth analyses on issues including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s agenda, solar tariffs, and key provisions on electric vehicles in the Inflation Reduction Act. Use our DataPoint visualizations on topics like natural gas prices to simplify complex data clearly and compellingly, giving you the ability to make your case effectively.
  3. Build relationships: Tailor your outreach efforts to align with key decision-makers’ interests and needs. POLITICO Pro’s congressional, committee, state, and federal agency directories make it easier to stay current on who’s who in energy committees and their positions on important issues. Search the federal agency directory for the right connections at regulatory bodies that oversee the nation’s utility suppliers and energy infrastructures. The directories, used in conjunction with our integrated Stakeholder Management solution, allow you to efficiently send emails to key contacts, track outreach, and measure engagement effectiveness from a single platform.
  4. Collaborate with stakeholders: Collaborate with ally advocacy groups, energy industry associations, and other lobbyists specializing in the same field using POLITICO Pro’s collaboration tools to help you access information, share insights and coordinate actions. You can also download outreach records, analysis, and other insights to communicate with external partners.
  5. Stay organized: Maintain a systemic approach in executing your strategy. By storing news and analysis on renewable energy legislation, creating follow-up tasks after meeting with members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, or keeping notes on your interactions with regulators at FERC on one platform, you always have access to information you need. Plus, with POLITICO Pro’s web-based platform, you can access your data anywhere with a secure internet connection.

POLITICO Pro is an invaluable resource for consultants and lobbyists in all industries seeking to enhance their knowledge, foster relationships, and advocate on their issues more effectively. By implementing these tips, you can fully use the potential of this dynamic policy intelligence platform. Schedule a demo today to discover how POLITICO Pro can assist you in achieving policy success!

See how Pro powers a public policy advocacy professional’s day.

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Today’s media landscape can be hard to navigate. As politics becomes more polarized, it can be hard to find sources that can be trusted with unbiased news. Smart policy professionals everywhere must approach today’s news and information sources by asking two questions:

  1. Can I trust this source? And as such, can my team, my organization, and our clients trust this source?
  2. Is the intelligence I gain from this source fact-based and unbiased?

POLITICO Pro’s newsroom is staffed by the most well-connected and respected reporters in Washington, across the nation, and beyond. Pro’s teams of policy-specific journalists keep opinions out of their stories to ensure readers have fact-based, nonpartisan information.

Being the first to break news or offering a sophisticated online experience is simply not enough. Modern media companies know that they must offer objective information reported with accuracy and integrity to maintain credibility with readers and customers. At POLITICO Pro, this commitment to objective and accurate reporting is at the root of every story that comes from our newsroom.

Background on POLITICO and POLITICO Pro

POLITICO was founded on a commitment to reporting the facts. In 2006, a handful of Washington reporters broke away from their legacy media organizations to build the next great political media company. Not only would POLITICO be the first and best at breaking the most important news on politics and policy in power centers across every continent, POLITICO’s reporting would become the epitome of reliable information and nonpartisan journalism with real-time tools to create, inform, and engage influencers across the political spectrum.

POLITICO Pro, a subscription policy intelligence platform, launched in 2011 with journalism around three policy areas: healthcare, technology, and energy. In the years after, we have expanded policy areas and added features such as Legislative Compass and Regulatory Compass, to track federal and state bills and regulations. In 2022, we introduced Stakeholder Management, a cutting-edge intelligence solution that provides professionals the tools to connect with the right people, grow their relationships, and stay a step ahead on policy priorities. Today we have deep coverage of 22 policy areas, over 300 expert field reporters, more than 500 articles released every day coupled with a library of over 3,000 data visualizations.

In the beginning of 2020, we launched AgencyIQ, a regulatory intelligence division of POLITICO that acts as an extension of your regulatory team. AgencyIQ‘s focused industry verticals – life science and chemical – provide real-time data and searching, tracking, and the ability to share regulatory information on one platform. Not long after, we acquired E&E News, an energy and environmental news subscription service that helps readers influence policy, anticipate change and make business decisions.

In 2021, our company was acquired by Axel Springer. We continue to maintain our commitment to unbiased journalism and reporting. POLITICO is dedicated to the promise that all coverage will be non-partisan and accurate.

Want to see more from POLITICO Pro? Visit the features section for an overview of how Pro can serve as your all-inclusive policy solution platform.

Content produced outside of the POLITICO Pro newsroom.

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The 118th Congress resulted with narrow majorities as the House Republicans claimed the lead, while Senate Democrats held on to their control. Through this gridlock, new members of Congress rise as star players as their new perspectives are turned into actionable items. 75 new lawmakers were introduced into the House, 40 of them are Republicans, and 35 are Democrats. Within the new members of the Senate, 5 are Republicans and 2 are Democrats. Together, the new Congress members bring with them more than 800 new staffers to Capitol Hill.

The new Congress is increasingly more reflective of the shifting demographic in America. The 118th Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse congress to date. A quarter of the members identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, or Alaska Native. The number of women in Congress is at an all-time high, and thirteen lawmakers identify as a lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The changing demographics in Congress will bring a wider range of perspective and voices to the legislative branch of the federal government.

Within this branch of government, comes the latest legislations that needs to work its way through the divided Congress. Currently, the Senate pushes for changes that will help with the China crackdown while reciprocation from the House remains uncertain. Meanwhile the national debt limit approaches and congressional members have varying perspectives on actions to take. Straightaway, new members of Congress are faced with pressing issues that require a general consensus.

Meet the New Movers and Shakers

Freshman Congress members attract the attention of policy influenced individuals, which is why it is important to understand their policy stance in order to discover the route to impactful change. POLITICO Pro subscribers have a direct line of contact with new power players of Congress followed by an organized setup of identifying, tracking, and engaging critical stakeholders. POLITICO Pro’s state of the art policy intelligence platform with features including Directories and Stakeholder Management allows you to broaden your reach and solidify your strategy for imperative policy decision making.

Commonly heard new Congress members’ names, such as Representative Monica De La Cruz or Senator John Fetterman, have taken action within the few weeks of taking office. Representative Monica De La Cruz has sponsored legislation, including Acts revolving around improving agriculture. Meanwhile, Senator John Fetterman cosponsored legislation to prohibit the gathering of certain worker data by employees.

Contact Policy Power Players

Whether your objective is to encourage legislators to support or oppose a legislation, or represent policy priorities on the behalf of your client; contacting a lawmaker, staffer, or committee is crucial to understanding a policy professional’s stance and how a productive conversation can be continued. POLITICO Pro’s Directories provide a simplified solution to search and filter contacts specific to your areas of interest including committee assignments, caucuses, leadership positions, congressional districts, and more. You can also quickly identify freshman Congress members by selecting “members” in the Result Type Box, then checking the “Freshman” box below Status.

Congressional Directory

Pro’s Congressional Directory is your source for noting representatives’ party affiliation, legislative activities, involvements with committees and caucuses, and social media activities. Filter through committees to view major and minority committee members and access staffer information associated with specific congressional members. Monitor legislative activities, such as the bills new Congress members have sponsored or cosponsored to gain a better insight into their policy stance and priorities. Take a peek at congressional members’ education, employment history, and associated organization memberships to find common parallels in their interests and background so you can draft a more personalized outreach. Pro Directories will serve as your asset to effortlessly connect with politicians, staffers, and other key contacts so you can make an impact on policy.

Pro Premium subscribers have access to additional new benefits, including Premium DataPoint Analysis. You can view Freshman Congress Members’ “Premium Bio” located to the right of the member’s name and within each member’s profile. Unlock in-depth analysis on each new Congress Member and gain a better insight on their policy perspectives.

Engage With Your Stakeholders

Now that you have built your list of contacts using Directories, you can use Stakeholder Management to take it one step further to organize and arrange methods of contact with your stakeholders. Send scheduled emails to those power players and keep track of top performing emails. Schedule meetings, record meeting satisfaction, monitor top attendees, and track meeting follow-ups. Stakeholder Management in unison with Directories serves as a powerful outreach tool that is designed for you to take advantage of reaching those critical contacts and leading efforts to make a change on policy.

Optimize Your Goals

Directories and Stakeholder Management are two of many features Pro has to offer to help you make policy moves. Utilize the entirety of Pro, including Legislative and Regulatory Trackers, to be fully equipped with unique insights and collaborative tools so your policy goals can advance. Learn more and request a free demo today!

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The 118th Congress is well underway. Congress being the legislative branch of federal government makes all laws, declares war, regulates interstate and foreign commerce and controls taxing and spending policies. During each legislative session Congress introduces thousands of bills. With House Republicans holding a narrow majority and Democrats keeping the control of the Senate and the White House, it remains to be seen if Congress can pass substantive legislation in the next two years.

On the Senate side, things were off to a slow start. On Thursday, February 2, 2023, the Senate finally approved resolution to organize committee. Nevertheless, the members from both chambers collectively introduced more than 1,000 legislation in January. The legislation include amending the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, extending the Federal Pell Grant Eligibility, curbing President Joe Biden’s ability to tap the nation’s petroleum reserves, and more.

Monitor Vital Policy Movements

The total number of bills, resolutions, and amendments that make it to Congress varies from year to year. The 117th Congress introduced more than 17,000 pieces of legislation. Out of the more than 15,000 joint resolutions and bills, 365 eventually found their way to the President’s desk and became laws. While most bills do not make it out of committees or subcommittees, it is imperative for policy professionals to stay on top of important legislative developments. Current impactful bills that are making their way through Congress include:

The information overload for lobbyists, legislative aides, policy analysts, political consultants, and government relations managers can be overwhelming. Staying on top of legislative movements, making sense of changes from introduction to enactment, evaluating a bill’s impact on private and public sectors and individuals, and sharing information with others can cause many hurdles.

Access Complete Information

POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that includes one of the most comprehensive bill trackers on the market. Pro’s Legislative Compass is a powerful, intelligent bill tracking tool that provides a complete source of federal legislative information with more than 25 years of data. For those who also need to effectively influence legislation on the state level, Legislative Compass also has more than 10 years of data across all 50 states.

Pro’s bill tracker allows you to follow actions on a bill from inception to passage. Coupled with POLITICO’s nonpartisan, in-depth reporting, and Premium Bill Analysis, you will have the information you need to strategize early and know when to pivot to a new strategy to reach the most favorable outcomes. Pro’s Legislative Compass is designed for busy policy professionals like you who need insightful updates with minimal noise, to understand the impact quickly, and to share information with your team to ensure alignment.

Every bill introduced in Congress is available in Pro’s bill tracker. Uncover details effortlessly, including sponsors and co-sponsors, bill text, bill version comparison, CRS summaries, similar bills, latest actions, roll call votes, related news, analysis, and documents such as transcripts and committee reports.

Track Spending Bills

The 12 annual federal spending bills or appropriations bills are one of the most significant legislation. The spending bills set appropriate federal funds for specific federal government, agencies, and programs. The money is used to fund hundreds of programs and pay for the operations, personnel, equipment, and activities of those programs. At the end of 2022, Congress passed a $1.7 Trillion omnibus spending bill. Our Pro platform has a dedicated Appropriations Tracker within the Legislative Compass. The tracker monitors spending bills with straightforward visualizations and gives you access to key documents in a single, easy-to-view display.

Organize Your Information and Align Your Team

To help you weed through the chaff, our Tracked Bill capabilities allows you to add bills you are following to Project folders and set email alert options based on your preference. Public policy is a team sport. Collaborate with your team, define and communicate your organization’s policy position and priority to coordinate actions and keep your team focused on the most crucial legislation. Through Pro, you can set up different group Project folders to share information with the appropriate colleagues who are also Pro users.

Leverage the Platform for Policy Success

Legislative Compass is one of the policy tools within the Pro platform. To fully unleash your policy leadership and potential use Pro Directories to find key lawmakers and policy influencers and reach out to those contacts using Pro’s integrated Stakeholder Management solution. Learn more about how Pro can help you navigate Congressional gridlock and find a through lane to your intended destination.

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With 35 Senate, 435 House, and 36 gubernatorial seats up for grabs, the 2022 midterms will bring change to the legislative landscape. The election results profoundly impact the country’s political climate, President Biden’s legislative agenda, and all policy areas from the economy to health care.

During the midterms, POLITICO Pro subscribers had access to policy and race tracking tools, exclusive news coverage, and in-depth analysis to help them anticipate change and plan their post-election stakeholder engagement strategy. A new Congressional session is less than two months away. It is more important than ever for government affairs and other policy professionals to have a comprehensive and customizable policy intelligence platform to stay on top of important developments, connect with decision makers, and make the most of legislation opportunities. POLITICO Pro’s post-election analysis on key policy areas and non-partisan reporting combined with our powerful policy intelligence and stakeholder management features, give you precisely what you need to maximize your reach and demonstrate your accomplishments.

Stay in the Know

Policy professionals need to anticipate change to maximize opportunities and navigate potential roadblocks. POLITICO Pro’s race tracking tool, non-partisan news, and in-depth analysis provide a complete view of the 2022 elections and advanced intel on policy changes.

Throughout the election cycle, Campaign Races Dashboard is the one place for candidate information, campaign finance data, race ratings, and election results for House and Senate contests. The dashboard features 50-state House and Senate map views that help subscribers keep an eye on all federal races, vulnerable members, swing districts, and the issues that influenced the outcomes of the midterms.

Pro Premium subscribers have the added advantage of premium midterms-specific content from primaries to post-general elections. The first post-election Pro Analysis will be available on November 11. It will take a deep dive in to economic policy in the new Congress. A Pro Analysis is a three-page snapshot that lays out what’s at stake, key players, and the next steps for an emerging issue. See the 2022 Midterms Pro Analysis Topic Agenda for a schedule of the post-election coverage. And download pre-general elections analysis on The Midterms and Economic Policy and Midterms’ Impact on Health Policy to sample Pro’s premium content.

Premium subscribers also receive DataPoint, graphic visualizations that explain complex policy topics in an easy-to-understand visual format. Each DataPoint is available in multiple formats, JPG, PDF, and PowerPoint, so it can be shared or incorporated in presentations effortlessly. From the lame-duck session to the new Congress, Pro’s graphic team will publish a series of results graphics and profiles of the new Congress members. See the 2022 Midterms DataPoint schedule for more details. Download our recent DataPoint on Departing House Members to learn more about DataPoint.

Track Policy Movements

It is predicted that it will be a busy lame-duck session for both chambers of Congress. High-priority items on the legislative to-do list include:

The government funding bill is the most pressing and is viewed as a must-pass bill. Therefore, it is often a magnet for lawmakers to tack on other priorities. And NDAA is widely expected to pass in the lame-duck session as well. NDAA is another must-pass bill and attracts unrelated legislation. FY23 NDAA has a wide range of potential amendments from sanctions on Russia to immigration and health provisions.

Pro’s Legislative Compass is a time-saving tool for policy professionals who need to stay on top of the new bills moving through federal and state level. Bill version comparison, note sharing, and priority and stance tracking features allow you to monitor legislation that matters most to your organization closely. The Appropriation Tracker within the Legislative Compass follows the 12 federal spending bills and shows changes as the House and Senate advance their legislation from the committee stage to presidential approval.

Find and Connect with Power Players

Now that you know what is at stake, you need to find the key players and reach them to advocate for your policy position. POLITICO Pro’s Stakeholder Management is an integrated solution built within the Pro platform. You can find key contacts, send emails, log interactions, export reports, evaluate engagements, and collaborate with team members seamlessly through one platform.

Stakeholder Management’s integration with Pro’s Congressional and state government directories means you will always have the most up-to-date contact information of key policymakers. You can also create targeted lists by using search filters to find contacts by Congressional committees, departments, agencies, party affiliations, freshmen status, and more.

The in-platform emailing and reporting features make executing outreach a breeze. You can create, schedule, and send emails to federal and state lawmakers and staffers with an easy-to-use email editor. And at-a-glance email performance and engagement reporting features help you measure the effectiveness of your outreach, optimize your strategy, and demonstrate return on investment (ROI). In 2023, subscribers will have more reporting and analytic tools to monitor lawmaker and influencer dialogue, analyze the nature and strength of existing relationships, and matchmake for new ones.

Discover a Clear Path to Your Policy Goals

Whether you’re a lobbyist, consultant, researcher, or analyst, POLITICO Pro can help you stay informed, strategize, and make an impact on your organization’s mission and business goals. Learn more about POLITICO Pro or request a demo today.

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Engaging with your stakeholders and demonstrating the impact of your efforts are some of the most fundamental parts of your job. It also can be the most difficult. Between staying on top of staff changes, finding the right contacts, tracking your interactions, and reporting back to your team—stakeholder management feels barely manageable. Unfortunately, many of the tools available to help you manage stakeholders make the job even harder. Outdated information slows you down, and over-engineered tools require costly support just to do the basics. Most platforms stitch together various feature components creating a disjointed and cumbersome experience, rather than being designed as an integrated whole. Sound familiar? If so, you’re probably still hesitant to change, understandably wondering if the next thing is at all different than everything else you’ve tried.

Well, here at POLITICO we love to share a good scoop – and we’ve got one for you today. Next week we’re launching a unique stakeholder management solution, built right into our award-winning platform and instantly available to all clients. We diligently listened to our clients’ top pain points with their stakeholder management tools, and built a solution that is easy to use, fully integrated within our Pro platform, and powered by the cutting-edge intelligence that we’re known for.

  • Clean and simple interface: easily find your contacts, send an e-mail, log your interactions, and export reports with minimal clicks. With all the complexity you manage day-to-day, the tools you use should help you simplify.
  • Powered by POLITICO intelligence: you already know and trust POLITICO Pro for its standard-setting news and policy analysis, and the platform that brings it all to life. We’ve assembled a team of experts in product design, user experience, policy-making, and politics—all who deeply understand the policy-making ecosystem, and the role that stakeholder relationships play in it.
  • One integrated site: no more switching across multiple platforms to perform one task. POLITICO Pro offers a single site with integrated Congressional, agency, and state government directories, projects-based work organization, Pro-only news, calendars, legislative and regulatory tracking, and stakeholder management. A single, integrated site means all your activity is reliably and safely stored in one go-to place.

Our initial launch this month is just the beginning. We’re partnering with our clients to take in their feedback along the way, informing iterative enhancements and helping us scope new functionality—like a robust stakeholder identification engine using AI and network analysis, which is already in development. This client-first partnership ensures we’re building a product that truly meets your needs.

Curious about how to make stakeholder management actually manageable? Sign up for a demo to start meeting your policy advocacy goals today!

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A comprehensive stakeholder engagement plan enables policy professionals to keep stakeholders informed, establish trust with decision makers, identify and address risks, coordinate the team, and measure efforts. During a fast-moving midterm elections season, you need tools and policy insights to build relationships with vital contacts—at vital times.

What is stakeholder engagement

Stakeholder engagement is the activity of maintaining good relationships with people who have the most impact on your work. Stakeholder engagement involves a systematic process for identifying stakeholders, analyzing their needs, and planning and implementing various outreach activities. When properly implemented, it keeps stakeholders “on board” and gains their buy-ins.

Stakeholders engagement in government relations

The goal of stakeholder engagement in government relations is to humanize the relationships between an organization and policymakers. Many government relations professionals work at the intersection of public policy and public affairs. You are in cross-functional roles focused on grasping and translating complex policy issues and executing multi-dimensional communication plans to support business objectives.

Reasons for having a stakeholder engagement strategy

  • Stay abreast of critical issues and stakeholder sentiments
  • Strengthen the organization’s position and optimize positive outcomes
  • Build social capital
  • Increase the organization’s credibility
  • Mitigate risks

Stakeholders in government relations include:

  • Elected and unelected federal officials
  • State and local lawmakers and regulators
  • Foreign governments
  • Media

How is stakeholder engagement different from grassroots advocacy

Both grassroots lobbying and stakeholder engagement aim to influence public policy. However, they reach their goals through two different communication strategies.

Stakeholder engagement is a form of direct advocacy. It is the attempt to influence any new or existing legislation by communicating with members of Congress, state agencies, or any government officials who may participate in the formulation of laws and rules.

On the other hand, grassroots lobbying attempts to sway public opinion and mobilize the public around legislation. Grassroots campaigns ask the general public or a segment of the public to contact their lawmakers regarding a legislative issue.

What is Pro’s Stakeholder Management

In-house government affairs professionals and lobbyists need tools to find the right lawmakers and foster relationships to champion top policy priorities during the 2022 midterm elections. Pro’s new Stakeholder Management is a suite of features that provides policy professionals the outreach, team collaboration, interaction tracking, and analytics tools they need to execute their stakeholder engagement strategies seamlessly.

What are the key Stakeholder Management functionalities

Pro’s Stakeholder Management is fully integrated with the broader Pro platform. Soon Pro subscribers not only have access to exclusive non-partisan news, real-time intelligence, in-depth analysis, bill tracking, and research tools, they also will have the ability to

  • Email from platform
    Create, schedule, and send emails right from the platform. Search for contacts in Pro’s Directories, pull contact lists from existing Project folders, or upload external lists to Pro. Monitor email performance using analytics
  • Track interactions
    Track engagement with lawmakers, legislators, and staffers by logging interactions, including meetings, emails, notes, meeting scores, and events.
  • Evaluate engagements
    Gain insight from analyzing top performing emails, top attendees, and activity charts and comparing team versus individual dashboard views.
  • Collaborate with team members
    Save time and stay coordinated by recording interactions, sharing notes, setting priorities, and assigning follow ups through one dashboard for the entire team.

Get in touch

Let us know about your top 2022 policy priorities and stakeholder engagement strategy, and discover out how Pro gives you everything you need to elevate winning policies. Learn more.

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POLITICO hosted a briefing for Pro subscribers on Thursday, May 13th on President Joe Biden’s pair of infrastructure proposals, the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan.

Transportation reporter Tanya Snyder discussed the floated investments in physical infrastructure. Technology reporter John Hendel described what the plan could mean for broadband, and labor reporter Eleanor Mueller discussed its child care and paid leave provisions, along with its implications for unions and U.S.-based jobs. Transportation reporter Sam Mintz moderated the discussion.

Here are five key takeaways:

1) Biden’s infrastructure plan could stand a better chance at enactment than prior presidents’.

Tanya explained that while previous presidents’ infrastructure overhauls, like former President Donald Trump’s, didn’t get far, Biden’s seems to have legs. First, there is a single party controlling Congress and the White House. Second, the administration is putting a lot of manpower into selling the plan. Third, there are a wide array of interests reflected in the package. And fourth, there’s a sense that the government already spent a ton of money on Covid relief, so what’s some more going to matter?

However, the White House must still grapple with narrow Democratic majorities in both chambers and uncertainty over the process — for instance, budget reconciliation, which would allow the legislation to move with a simple majority.

2) The inclusion of broadband may be a heavy lift for the White House.

John pointed out that while broadband is superficially a crowd-pleaser that both Biden and Republicans embrace, GOP lawmakers have balked at Democrats’ plans to help less conventional entities like local governments provide service and efforts to pressure private providers on pricing. Broadband providers have typically resisted government intrusion over what they charge their customers. And during fights over net neutrality, one of the fears the telecom industry and Republicans regularly invoke is that Democrats will attempt to regulate broadband internet rates, though many Democrats have long said they have no interest in doing so.

But digital connectivity advocates have repeatedly pointed to high U.S. prices and lament that there’s not enough competition or incentive for bringing down the prices. Biden has put Vice President Kamala Harris at the helm of the effort in a sign of the weight he’s assigning the topic.

3) Budget reconciliation could strip out or pare down the plan’s labor components.

Eleanor explained that passing the bill via budget reconciliation would prevent the inclusion of the pro-labor Protecting the Right to Organize Act. It would also block lawmakers from being able to enact job protections for workers who want to use the paid leave program Biden has proposed, unless they are also covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. As a result, an estimated 40 percent of the workforce would have no guarantee that their jobs would be waiting for them when they return — and that number will only grow in coming years because of how the FMLA is structured. The culprit is the Byrd rule, which bars reconciliation bills from including policy-related provisions that are considered extraneous to the budget.

4) Don’t count on the inclusion of user fees.

Sam told subscribers that the White House has been pretty clear that increasing user fees like the gas tax is something the administration considers to be a tax on people making under $400,000 a year, which would violate Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on people below that income threshold. While the negotiations could go in unexpected directions, it seems unlikely that’s something the administration would bend on.

5) There are provisions to encourage companies to keep jobs in the U.S. scattered throughout the package.

Eleanor explained that the plan would set aside $46 billion for the federal government to invest in clean energy manufacturing, which it would spend on U.S. corporations. The tax component, meanwhile, would discourage offshoring by increasing a minimum tax on U.S. multinational corporations to 21 percent and calculating it on a country-by-country basis, along with attempting to end “the global race to the bottom” on corporate tax rates by encouraging other countries to adopt strong minimum taxes on corporations, among other steps.

*This article was originally made available to POLITICO Pro subscribers on 05/14/2021 at 04:14 PM EDT

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This content was produced outside of the POLITICO Pro newsroom. Case studies do not reflect an endorsement for any organization.

Public Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that works to ensure that the government is operating in citizens’ best interests. Founded in 1971, Public Citizen acts on behalf of the public to champion good government, a strong regulatory system, a clean and sustainable environment, affordable and safe health care, citizen access to the courts, corporate accountability in the trade arena and more.

The Challenge: Limited Resources & A Wide Legislative Portfolio

Since its founding nearly 50 years ago, Public Citizen has served as “the people’s advocate.” Advocating for the public means having a diverse legislative portfolio and working to hold powerful actors accountable.

As Public Citizen’s list of policy priorities expanded, it needed a way to scale up and “level the playing field” with corporations and trade associations that have many more resources at their disposal. “Given my wide portfolio, responsibilities, and managing a team – I’m short on time, but I need to stay up-to-date on the issues,” says Susan Harley, Managing Director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. Congress Watch engages in public education, grassroots organizing, and advocacy before Congress and administrative agencies on issues like money in politics, open government, corporate accountability and more.

The Solution: Scaling Resources to Advocate for the Public

Since 2013, Public Citizen has relied on POLITICO Pro to help scale up their advocacy efforts, save time, and be the first to know when news breaks. As Managing Director of Congress Watch, Harley’s responsibilities include meeting with congressional stakeholders and strengthening relationships with coalition partners across various issues. POLITICO Pro provides her and her team access to actionable intelligence and information critical to their success.

Here’s what a day in the life with Harley looks like:

  • Harley starts her morning with POLITICO Pro’s daily newsletters to get an overview of what’s happening across the issue areas important to her work, “it’s just such a digestible way to get information,” says Harley.
  • In one of Pro’s newsletters, Harley reads about the introduction of a new bill that Public Citizen supports. Harley logs into the platform and accesses Pro’s Congressional Directory to pull contact information and bios for congressional staffers and starts to set up lobby meetings. “Many times, I’ve gotten that important nugget of information from a directory bio that helps me build a relationship,” says Harley.
  • When a bill gets to the hearing stage, Harley can’t always be in the room, so she relies on Pro to be in the room for her, “Just the other day I missed a hearing and was able to access the hearing transcript through the Document Drawer.”

Most recently, Harley has been tracking the controversial “net operating loss” provision included in the CARES Act, the first coronavirus stimulus package passed in March. The provision was intended to allow companies to get quick cash infusions from the IRS, but opens new opportunities for tax arbitrage. Public Citizen argues the provision gives too much to wealthy business owners and corporations. “The ability to quickly dig into an esoteric issue, like net operating losses, is invaluable. If you’re not an accountant but are working on tax issues, having the ability to get all sides of the issue presented and get down into the weeds, it’s priceless,” says Harley of POLITICO Pro’s coverage on the issue.

The Results: Leveling the Playing Field

With POLITICO Pro, Public Citizen has a trusted resource to rely on as it continues to grow its capacity and hold powerful actors accountable, even when they may have more resources at their disposal. “With POLITICO Pro, we have the information before others, so we’re ahead of the curve. In addition, it puts us on a level playing field with some of the corporate actors that have many different resources at their disposal. Information is such a key resource for us, it’s just absolutely essential to our work,” says Harley.