Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
August 2018
US Government Expands the Scope of CFIUS Review
Client Alert
https://www.huntonak.com/images/content/5/3/v2/53679/us-government-expands-scope-cfius.pdf
FIRRMA FAQs
https://home.treasury.gov/sites/default/files/2018-08/FIRRMA-FAQs-8-13-18-v2-CLEAN.pdf
Schumer-Linked Super PAC Invests $500,000 to Boost Espy in Mississippi
A super PAC linked to Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) is making a last-minute investment in Mississippi to bolster Mike Espy, the Democratic Party's nominee for U.S. Senate, ahead of the Nov. 27 special election runoff. Senate Majority PAC, which is run by a noted Schumer confidant and committed to boosting Democrats in the upper chamber, made its first and to-date only ad buy in Mississippi on Thursday—totaling more than $507,000, according to documents filed with the Federal Elections Commission. A staff member for the Schumer-aligned super PAC told the Washington Free Beacon the total expenditure would be spent on launching an ad attacking incumbent Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith for accepting campaign donations from the insurance industry. The ad, which is similar in style and tone to attacks the PAC leveled against other Republican Senate candidates this election cycle, will run statewide across Mississippi's media markets. It fails, however, to note that Espy himself has accepted more than $55,000 from individuals affiliated with the health care industry. It is unclear if the ad will continue running through Nov. 27. Senate Majority PAC did not respond to follow-up requests.
The investment comes on the heels of the Nov. 6 special election held to determine who will fill the remainder of former Republican senator Thad Cochran's term, which is scheduled to end in 2020. Espy, who previously served in the Clinton administration as secretary of agriculture before resigning under a cloud of ethical and financial impropriety, took second place in the special election with more than 40 percent of the vote. The Democrat was only two points behind Hyde-Smith, who was appointed upon Cochran's retirement in March. Another Republican candidate, state senator Chris McDaniel, came in third with slightly more than 16 percent. Since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff between Hyde-Smith and Espy has been scheduled for later this month. The scale of the buy seems to indicate that National Democrats aren't taking the race lightly, especially after watching Senate incumbents suffer bruising losses in Indiana, Florida, North Dakota, and Missouri.
Espy's second-place showing and the prospect that electoral turnout will be significantly lower in the run-off than it was on Election Day seems to have ignited Democratic hopes of snagging another Senate seat in the deep South. As previously reported by the Free Beacon, Espy raised more than $250,000 in the week after the special election in part due to a flood of campaign contributions from the legal and entertainment professions aligned with the Democratic Party. Jennifer Dunagin, communications director for the Mississippi Republican Party, told the Free Beacon it wasn't surprising Senate Majority PAC was committing resources to the race. "Out-of-state liberals are pouring in hundreds of thousands of dollars into Mike Espy’s campaign for one reason: They know he would be a guaranteed vote for their … agenda," Dunagin said. "Mississippi deserves a senator who will stand up for their values, not someone who will stand up for Chuck Schumer's."
The ad buy was conducted through Waterfront Strategies, a Democratic media placement firm that holds Senate Majority PAC as one of its top clients. The firm is run by Jim Margolis, a former senior campaign adviser to President Barack Obama and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As denoted by the Center for Responsive Politics, Senate Majority PAC spent $114 million underwriting Democratic Senate candidates this cycle alone. Disclosures show that Waterfront Strategies was the PAC's single biggest vendor accounting for more than $28 million in payments.
https://freebeacon.com/politics/schumer-linked-super-pac-invests-500000-to-boost-espy-in-mississippi/
Espy Denied Employee’s Promotion Due to Child’s Preexisting Condition
Department of Agriculture lost disability discrimination fight during Espy's tenure
As secretary of agriculture, Mike Espy fought to block the promotion of a department employee because his young daughter's preexisting heart condition was believed to be a potential financial burden on the government, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
Espy, now running for U.S. Senate in Mississippi, was confirmed to head the Department of Agriculture in January 1993 during the Clinton administration. It was after Espy took office that James Patterson, an agricultural economist for the department, says he learned that his promotion to the Foreign Agriculture Service, a department within USDA, was being stalled even though he had passed all the required tests with flying colors. The reason for the USDA's decision was Patterson's daughter, who was born in 1989 and immediately went into surgery for congenital heart disease. "My problems began at the Agriculture Department when Mike Espy came in January 1993," Patterson, now retired from the department, explained in an interview. "I was in the Foreign Service there at the time, and he decided he would demote me based on my daughter's disability." Patterson filed an Equal Employment Opportunity discrimination complaint regarding Espy's actions at USDA, which he saw as a direct violation of both the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a law Espy voted for as a member of the House of Representatives.
''Patterson managed to rally support for his case against Espy from Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who chaired the Senate subcommittee on disability policy and was lead sponsor for the Americans with Disabilities Act. He shared with the Free Beacon correspondence he maintains between Harkin and Espy that shed light on the details of the case. "Mr. Patterson believes that he has been denied a promotion due to the fact that his daughter has a disability," Harkin wrote in a March 11, 1993, letter to Espy. "As an employee of the federal government, Mr. Patterson may be protected against discrimination of this nature under section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973." "As chief sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, I am very interested in Mr. Patterson's situation," he continued. "Federal employees have been protected from discrimination based on a disability since 1973, and I am very concerned to learn that this type of discrimination may still be occurring."'' Harkin sent a follow-up letter to Espy on April 2, 1994, reasserting to Espy that the law barred any "discrimination against a federal employee of an applicant for federal employment because of the disability of a dependent child."
Espy's response to Harkin, sent on August 13, 1994, shows Espy stood by his agency's decision on Patterson, and even indicated that his promotion to the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) would be able to proceed if not for his daughter, saying he would receive the promotion once "circumstances change." "Mr. Patterson was offered a settlement comparable to other similarly situated employees," Espy told Harkin. "This resolution offer included a 5-year limited appointment into the Foreign Service with an overseas tour. Should circumstances change during his tenure with FAS, he would be converted to the Foreign Service."
https://freebeacon.com/politics/espy-denied-employees-promotion-due-to-childs-preexisting-condition/