Former Attorney General Bill Barr will help to steer a recent group formed by a business lobbying organization that goals to be a substitute for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the large advocacy group that has fallen out of favor with some Republicans.
Barr will probably be chair of an advisory board for a project called the Center for Legal Motion, he told CNBC in an interview. The group is an element of the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce, the business lobbying group that launched last 12 months as a possible rival to the chamber.
The American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce boasts of being a business lobbying group that fights “against outdated regulations, future-killing tax policies, and the company cronyism and backroom DC deal making that close down our economic future,” in keeping with a memo pitch to potential members.Â
Barr’s decision to affix with the brand new group comes as some Republicans on Capitol Hill have turned their backs on the Chamber of Commerce after it began to favor endorsing Democrats running for House seats. The business lobbying behemoth moved away from predominantly supporting Republicans in recent times after former president Donald Trump embraced trade protectionism, bashed certain firms for his or her social stances and tried to overturn the 2020 election.
Barr, for his part, drew the ire of the previous president and plenty of of his GOP allies when he said evidence didn’t back Trump’s claims that fraud cost him the presidential election.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., are among the many powerful GOP members who’ve distanced themselves from the unique chamber.
In a press release to CNBC provided by the brand new group, McCarthy said it “is a crucial tool to make sure regulators operate fairly, efficiently, and without burdening America’s entrepreneurs and small businesses.”
Scalise in a separate statement to CNBC provided by the business lobbying organization said, “The American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce creating the Center for Legal Motion is welcome news to House Republicans.”
The brand new group goals goals to challenge — at times in court — regulations put in place by the Biden administration. Barr will chair the project’s advisory board, in support of the chairman Terry Branstad and CEO Gentry Collins.
Branstad was a longtime Iowa governor and Trump’s U.S. ambassador to China. Collins was once a political director for the Republican National Committee.
In his role, Barr will advise the Center for Legal Motion on the perfect litigators to rent, he explained to CNBC. He can even help to develop the organization’s overall legal strategy.
The “CLA will provide congressional testimony, initiate litigation, file amicus briefs, and support lawsuits brought by other parties in vital regulatory and constitutional cases,” the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce said in a press release.
Barr wouldn’t say who he goals to recruit from the legal community.
He noted that the newly formed project would engage on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed climate-risk disclosure rule. If the rule is enacted, public firms would need to disclose the carbon emissions which can be a part of their operations, in addition to the climate risks their businesses face.
Collins wouldn’t say how much the organization is investing into the brand new project. But he told CNBC that the group has been recruiting business members “at a rate of greater than 1,000 a month for nearly a 12 months now.”
“As we have done that, considered one of the principal challenges that we hear from businesses of all sizes across the country is regulatory overreach threatening our business, threatening our industries and threatening our overall economy,” Collins said.
