Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has been quietly backing a bill to launch a federal tax incentive for film, with support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, multiple sources said. Variety.

Ellison has spent at least six months in exploratory meetings for the proposed legislation, two sources added, and on Monday night he was present in Washington, D.C. to break bread with top Republican leaders, where the matter will be discussed.

The names of politicians from both parties involved in the bill were not immediately available. More than one source noted the irony that Ellison’s meeting Monday night occurred on the same day that a group of state attorneys general filed suit to block the mogul’s acquisition of Warner Bros. (his general counsel, Makan Delrahim, is at his side in DC).

A federal film tax incentive would provide significant financial relief to content producers fleeing the United States in search of refunds around the world. A federal program would also improve the deal in Hollywood’s home state of California, whose Attorney General Rob Bonta is leading the prosecution in the tough antitrust lawsuit brought against Ellison today by Warner Bros.

Hollywood unions, including the DGA, IATSE and SAG-AFTRA, have also taken on the role of a federal incentive. In its newly negotiated contract, the DGA stipulated that top studio executives must engage in lobbying for more favorable domestic filming incentives.

California has a $750 million film and television tax credit, but there is no such program nationwide.

Bonta, along with a coalition of 12 other states, alleged in its antitrust lawsuit that the $111 billion merger between the two legacy studios violates the Clayton Act by weakening competition in three markets: wide-release theatrical distribution, “top-grossing” theatrical distribution and basic cable licenses. If Paramount and Warner Bros. were to merge, the lawsuit argues, the combined company would control 27% of the wide-release theatrical distribution market, 30% of the submarket comprising “early blockbuster movies” and 27% of the basic cable package.

“The illegal merger of these two entertainment giants would lead to higher prices, lower quality and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors and, ultimately, audiences on every couch and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” Bonta said in a statement Monday.

Paramount, of course, responded with a scathing statement after the lawsuit was filed. The company said in the statement: “The lawsuit brought by the state’s attorneys general, in the most generous manner, reflects a fundamentally flawed application of the antitrust laws and is flawed in both fact and law. Delaying this transaction will only harm entertainment workers who have already suffered in recent years as technology has disrupted their livelihoods and cost California tens of thousands of entertainment jobs.”

The Justice Department already approved the deal in March, essentially clearing the way for Ellison to complete his plans for a Paramount-Warner Bros. combination. Hollywood unions and stars have not been interested in the transaction, and fear that an already struggling Hollywood could be sunk further by a historically ineffective mega-merger tactic of two media giants.