Life is good for companies that hire lobbyist Jeff Ricchetti, the brother of President Joe Biden’s longtime political aide Steve Ricchetti. Jeff Ricchetti runs a top lobbying firm whose clients secured meetings with Biden and other members of the president’s cabinet.
Both General Motors and Amazon hired Ricchetti Incorporated after Biden defeated Donald Trump. Within months of hiring the lobbying firm, both companies scored high-profile meetings with the president and his cabinet that focused on their shared concerns about the shortage of semiconductors.
The semiconductor meetings underscore how Ricchetti has established himself as a go-to for corporations looking for access in the Biden administration. Ricchetti’s lobbying income has soared in the early months of the Biden administration—according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Ricchetti’s firm brought in $820,000 in the first quarter of 2021, nearly five times more than what he earned during the same period in 2020.
Three months after GM hired Ricchetti to lobby the House, Senate, and Department of Commerce on topics including “issues related to the availability of semiconductors and critical supply chains for manufacture of automobiles,” the company received an invite to a May 20 summit with Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce. According to contemporary coverage, the meeting focused on “companies impacted by the global semiconductor shortage.” Also in the Raimondo meeting was another Ricchetti client, Amazon, which hired Ricchetti just 10 days after Biden was elected, according to lobbyist disclosure forms.
Amazon and GM paid Ricchetti’s firm a combined $130,000 in the first quarter of 2021.
Biden hosted GM’s CEO for an April 12 summit on how to “[address] the global semiconductor shortage.” After the high-visibility meeting, GM’s CEO cosigned a statement thanking the Biden administration for its ongoing cooperation in resolving the shortage.- READ MORE
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