LegiStorm

Three longtime aides to retired Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) have reunited as lobbyists.

Matt Sandgren, who served as the senator's final chief of staff, founded Innovative Policy after the senator retired at the end of last term.

Two more ex-Hatch staffers have since joined in to help the firm lobby for Navajo Nation: Melanie Bowen, former Hatch state director, and Ron Dean, former regional director. With Sandgren, they spent a combined 73 years on Hatch's Senate staff.

Sandgren is also executive director of the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation, and Bowen is community-relations director there.

A Democratic aide has scrubbed in to a new job off the Hill.

Kelly McCone is now government-relations coordinator for the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. STS dropped almost half a million dollars to lobby the federal government on health-care issues last year.

McCone comes from the office of Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), where she was scheduler. She previously worked for Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.).

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), one of two new members who took office last week, has chosen a Koch-funded lobbyist to lead his staff.

Jason Bauknecht, now chief of staff, comes from Americans for Prosperity. The influential right-wing advocacy group serves as a primary lobbying outfit to funders Charles Koch and the late David Koch. AFP endorsed Tiffany's congressional bid to replace Sean Duffy (R), who resigned from office last fall.

Bauknecht served as AFP's federal-affairs director and most recently lobbied on tax, veterans, health-care and telecom issues. He previously worked at the Wisconsin state house.

Arnold & Porter has made a lobbyist out of a GOP attorney.

Casey Patchunka is now at legislative and public policy specialist for the law firm. So far, she's registered as a health and Medicare lobbyist for one client, Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp., which is working to develop a COVID-19 therapy.

Patchunka most recently worked for Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas). She joined his office as health-care counsel after graduating from George Washington Law last year.

Former Miss. Gov. Phil Bryant is lobbying for one of the largest employers from his home state.

The governor has registered to lobby for Huntington Ingalls Industries, his first disclosed federal lobbying client as a partner at the firm Bryant Songy Snell LLC. In January, Bryant joined the firm, which was founded by his former chief of staff, Joey Songy.

Bryant is no stranger to Huntington Ingalls, which builds military ships and employs 11,500 people at its Pascagoula, Miss. manufacturing site. In 2015, then-Governor Bryant visited the facility to ceremonially sign a bill for $20 million in state bond funding to help improve the company's shipyard, which is leased from the state.