LegiStorm

Now armed with a year and a half of lobbying experience, an aide has returned to the Senate.

Blaine Nolan is now scheduling director to Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). She originally worked on the Hill from 2011-2017, when she left Sen. Chris Van Hollen's (D-Md.) office for Prime Policy Group.

As the lobbying firm's deputy chief of staff, Nolan lobbied on behalf of several clients, including the National Restaurant Association. Prime Policy Group brought in about $8.5 million in federal lobbying income last year.

A Republican aide is back on the Hill as an official defender of liberty and values.

Brad Kehr is now the Senate Judiciary Committee's chief counsel for liberty and values. He comes from Americans United for Life, a self-designated "legal arm of the pro-life movement," where he spent the last year as government affairs counsel. He did not register as a lobbyist.

Before joining AUL, Kehr spent four years with Rep.-turned-Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.).

Rep. Brad Sherman's (D-Calif.) communications director has gone corporate.

Shane Seaver is now a director at Purple Strategies, an Alexandria, Va.-based strategy, communications and public affairs firm. Purple Strategies' current clients include McDonalds and BP, whom the firm helped to launch its "biggest global campaign in a decade" this month.

Prior to joining Sherman's office, Seaver worked for Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.). 

Privately sponsored congressional trips to Israel hit a ten-year low last year, thanks to one influential group shying away from paying for election-year travel.

The American Israel Education Foundation, a sister organization to the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying group, spent $444,000 courting 40 members and staff in Israel last year. That's less than half of what the group spent on 92 trips in 2016 ($963,000) and a third of what it spent on 107 trips in 2014 ($1.3 million).

Other groups spent an additional $170,000 on private congressional travel to Israel last year, bringing the total amount spent on all Israel travel to $614,000. That's the lowest spent in a single year since 2008, which saw a combined $445,000 spent on Israel travel.

AIEF's travel sponsorship in non-election years has not seem the same decline, with the group spending more than $1.9 million on travel in 2017.

AIEF and other interest groups spend such large sums on international travel in the hopes of making and influencing congressional allies, who get immersed for days in issues from the organization's point of view.

A House Armed Services Committee aide has left for one of the lobbying world's most influential firms.

Ari Zimmerman joins Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck this month as a policy adviser. Last year, the firm was the country's second-largest lobbying group as measured by federal lobbying income. Zimmerman is not currently registered as a lobbyist.

He spent the last two years with HASC as a Republican professional staff member. He previously worked on military issues for Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) and ex-Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.).