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Posted by Keturah Hetrick on July 7, 2020
Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) is finishing out the final months before his retirement with a former lobbyist by his side.
Eugene Patrone joined the congressman's office this month as legislative counsel. This is Patrone's fourth job working for a Republican member from New York. He previously held senior positions with former Reps. Chris Collins, Bob Turner and Sue Molinari.
Over the years, he held various lobbying jobs, including at law firm Bracewell, the now-defunct Washington Group, and Dunkin' Brands, which owns Dunkin' and Baskin-Robbins. He most recently worked for DHR International, an executive search firm.
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on July 6, 2020
No longer dropping big bucks on private travel for members and their staff, interest groups may see their congressional influence wane until the pandemic's end.
In the first six months of 2020, private sponsors have spent less than $700,000 on congressional travel. That's about $1.8 million less per year than the $2.5 million spent during the same time period in 2018 and 2016.
Interest groups, which normally spend large sums on international and domestic travel in the hopes of making and influencing congressional allies, employ their highest travel expenses in the summer months. This year, there have been no trips since early March.
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on July 2, 2020
Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) has lost his highest-ranking and longest-serving D.C. staffer to Siemens.
Andrew Wayne is now tax and trade director for the German conglomate, which dropped more than $4 million on federal lobbying last year.
Wayne joined Reed's office in November 2010, when the congressman took office, and ascended the ranks to chief of staff. Two district staffers have also worked for Reed since his first month in office.
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on June 29, 2020
With the addition of a Republican chief of staff, Facebook has continued its Hill hiring spree.
Ritika Robertson joined the tech giant as public-policy manager after spending the last five years with Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), including the last four as his top staffer. She previously worked for Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Facebook's other major hires in recent weeks include Ryan Daniels as policy-communications manager and Aparna Patrie as public-policy manager. Daniels and Patrick came from from the office of House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn (S.C.) and the Senate Judiciary Democrats, respectively.
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on June 26, 2020
Amid a nationwide call for police reform, the Los Angeles police union has hired its first lobbyist.
The LA Police Protective League is contracting with government-affairs and public-relations firm Vectis Strategies. Vectis is lobbying on the union's behalf on unspecified police-reform legislation, per a recent filing. The contract's sole lobbyist is Don Polese, a Ventis senior partner and ex-district director to retired Rep. Ron Packard (R-Calif.).
The contract began on June 13, around the time that the LAPPL released its own reform plan for the L.A. Police Department.
We spend a large part of our days looking at data. Documents often come in by the dozens and hundreds. And while most are boring - how interesting can staring at a phone directory or salary records be, for example? - we find daily reasons for interest, amusement or even concern packed in the documents. So we are launching a new running feature that we call "Caught our Eye."
Longer than tweets but shorter than most blog posts, Caught our Eye items will bring back the interest in reviewing documents and researching people. Some items might bring hard, breaking news. Others will raise eyebrows and lead some into further inquiry. Others might be good for a joke or two around the water cooler. All will enlighten about the people or workings of Capitol Hill.
Caught our Eye items will be published each morning for LegiStorm Pro subscribers. Non-Pro site users will be able to receive the news items a few hours later. In addition to having immediate access to the news, LegiStorm Pro users will have a handy way to search and browse all past items.
