LegiStorm

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has lost his chief of staff to K Street.

Kip Talley joins Federal Advocates this month as senior director of federal affairs. The bipartisan lobbying recently announced another big hire with the addition of Jennifer Arangio, formerly senior director to President Trump's National Security Council, as vice president.

Before coming to the Hill, Talley lobbied for the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association.

Jillian Lane Wyant, previously Gaetz’s communications director, has taken over as chief of staff.

An energy-reform advocacy group has powered up with the hire of a former Republican congressional aide.

Alex Hutkin joins Securing America's Future Energy, which advocates on economic and national security grounds for reduced oil dependence, as a manager for free oil markets. Hutkin most recently served as legislative director and deputy chief of staff to ex-Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.), who lost his reelection bid, and has also worked for Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.).

SAFE last year spent about $330,000 on federal lobbying, split between its in-house shop and a contract with ex-Rep. Randy Tate (R-Wash.).

The country's largest dental-plan system hired a former policy adviser to retired Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) this month.

Casey Quinn joins Delta Dental Plans Association as a government relations associate. She had worked for Johnson from her 2016 graduation from Southern Methodist University until Johnson's retirement at the end of last term.

Delta Dental lobbies on health-care and tax issues exclusively through its in-house shop.

House staffers ended last year with their biggest holiday bonuses since 2006, according to LegiStorm data.

Representatives overall gave an average fourth-quarter bonus of 21.7 percent over previous quarters, for an average of more than $3,300 per staffer. Those are the biggest annual bonuses since 2006, when staffers also received a 21.7 percent quarterly bonus.

Republicans staffers averaged a 23.8 percent quarterly bonus, ahead of Democrats' 19.7 percent.

Seven of the ten most generous bosses have since left the House, either due to retirement or electoral defeat. Retired Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) topped the charts, giving his staff an estimated average bonus of 97 percent over what they made in the previous quarters. Aides to Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) received the second-highest increase, at 95 percent per staffer.

Rounding out the top slots are ex-Reps. Tom Garrett (R-Va.), Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), John Delaney (D-Md.), David Young (R-Iowa), Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) and Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), and current Reps. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and Rob Bishop (R-Utah).

Members don't explicitly report bonuses in their quarterly expense reports. To estimate bonuses, LegiStorm compares average quarterly salaries to estimate each office's end-of-year bonuses. Any money left over from a member's annual spending allowance is returned to the Treasury at the end of the year.

One of the Senate's most powerful committees has added another Chamber of Commerce lobbyist.

Kristina Sesek comes from the Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform, where she spent the last six years as a legislative affairs director. She most recently lobbied on a range of banking, finance, criminal justice, torts, technology and consumer issues.

Sesek is now Republican counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Last month, the committee made waves among nationalists for hiring another former Chamber lobbyist, Amy Nice, as chief immigration counsel.