LegiStorm

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has made a lobbyist out of another House staffer.

Eric Rust is representing the business advocacy group on a host of accounting, finance, foreign relations and government issues, according to a recent lobbying filing. The Chamber is perennially the country's biggest spender on federal lobbying.

Rust most recently worked as a professional staff member to the House Financial Services Committee under Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who retired at the end of last term. Before that, he spent four years with Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.).

A longtime Democratic Senate aide has made his first move to the lobbying world.

Charlie Moskowitz joins Signal Group as executive vice president this month. The public relations firm lobbies on behalf of heavy-hitting clients including Facebook, American Airlines and Microsoft. Moskowitz has yet to file as a lobbyist, however.

Moskowitz, who holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from Fordham Law, had worked for former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) since 2013, most recently as senior policy counsel to her Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

So far, one in five freshman representatives has hired a non-white chief of staff — about the same proportion as returning members, according to LegiStorm data.

While freshman Democrats are more likely than their Republican peers to hire a non-white chief (25 percent vs. 8 percent), they've hired a smaller proportion of non-white chiefs than returning Democrats (30 percent). The GOP's freshman and returning members are equally (un)likely to employ a non-white chief of staff, with about 92 percent choosing a white person to lead his or her office.

Compared to returning representatives, the freshman of both parties were also less likely to employ non-white legislative assistants and district directors.

The top military expert to ex-Rep. Steve Russell (R-OK) has landed on K Street.

Cody Hoefer joined Bramer Group this month as a government relations manager. His first lobbying gig is on defense appropriations for Crazy Turtle Robotic Platforms, a Florida-based robotics company.

The Montana native spent the last four years as national defense and military policy adviser to Russell, who lost his election to Kendra Horn (D). Before that, Hoefer was a senior non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army.

A high-powered energy lobbying shop that operates largely under the radar has made a major hire from the Hill.

Cody Stewart, previously staff director to Rep. Rob Bishop's (R-Utah) Natural Resources Committee, is now senior vice president at National Environmental Strategies.

NES, which was co-founded in 1990 by former RNC Chair and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, lobbies mainly on energy issues. Marc Himmelstein, another NES co-founder and current president, reportedly enlisted help from Bishop and Utah Governor Gary Herbert to secure smog-requirement exemptions for Utah oil producers from Scott Pruitt, then EPA administrator, in July 2017. That was the same month that Stewart moved from a job as the governor's director of federal affairs to National Resources Committee staff director under Bishop.