LegiStorm

The House Natural Resources Committee has added an experienced water lobbyist to its Republican ranks.

Annick Miller Rivera started this month as a professional staff member. She comes from Water Strategies, a D.C. government-relations firm, and before that worked for law firm Best Best & Krieger. At each firm, she registered as a lobbyist on water-related issues.

Miller Rivera is no stranger to the Hill, having previously worked for ex-Reps. David Trott (R-Mich.), Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) and Mike Coffman (R-Colo.).

An ex-agriculture lobbyist has returned to the government-affairs world, this time with two years of Hill experience.

Allison Crittenden joined the Farm Bureau as director of congressional relations earlier this month. She previously worked as Rep. Rick Crawford’s (R-Ark.) senior legislative assistant handling agriculture, natural resources and environmental issues.

Before that, Crittenden worked for the Russell Group, a food- and agriculture-focused government-affairs firm, where her lobbying clients included Altria, Land O’Lakes and the American Chemistry Council.

A Republican led Congress in the worst staff turnover of 2018 - but the worst all-time offenders are still Democrats, according to a LegiStorm staffer salary analysis.

Including members who left Congress at the end of the term, Republican representatives made up 6 of the top 10 members with the highest turnover rates. The top spot for non-retiring members (retiring members are expected to have high turnover), went to Tom Reed (R-N.Y.). Other non-retired representatives who took the top spots included Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-Calif.), Will Hurd (R-Texas), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.).

Diaz Barragan now holds the highest historical turnover rate among current representatives, followed by Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif..), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.), Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), Arrington, Norma Torres (D-Calif.), Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Karen Bass (D-Calif.).

LegiStorm’s staff turnover index is salary-weighted, meaning that the departure of a higher-paid staffer, such as a chief of staff, will count proportionately more than staff assistant or other lower-paid staffer. LegiStorm considers only full-time, non-temporary staff and excludes all interns and fellows.

A Morgan Stanley director is now the GOP’s top House staffer on pipelines and railroads.

Michael Falencki joins the Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials as Republican staff director under Ranking Member Rick Crawford (Ark.).

Falencki had worked as a Morgan Stanley director for operations risk and regulatory control since 2016. Before that, he worked as a lobbyist for the Keelen Group lobbying firm and NCSC Group, a federal business consulting firm, and as deputy chief of staff to Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.).

Two representatives who lost contentious election races used up almost all their official budgets, ending the year with less than one percent left unspent even before the typical spending that gets accounted for only after year's end.

Former Reps. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) and Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) spent 99.3 percent and 99.1 percent of their budgets. Both faced highly competitive elections that culminated in Capuano's failed re-election and Renacci losing his Senate bid. Reps. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) and Don Young (R-Alaska) rounded out the rest of the year's top spenders. 

On average, members ended 2018 with 88.9 percent of their member representational allowances accounted for, according to a LegiStorm's compilation of member expenses. There was a slight partisan difference in spending, with Democrats spending about 1.5% more of their budgets than Republicans.

Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) disclosed the House’s smallest expenditures, with only 60.7 percent spent. His office was also the smallest spender of 2017, including 7.4 percent of his total budget that was not reported as spent until the next year. The other lowest spenders include Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) and Daniel Webster (R-Fla.).

Some members of Congress, like Webster, take pride in being near the bottom in spending each year. Unspent funds get returned to the U.S. Treasury.