LegiStorm

Rep. Abigail Spanberger's (D-Va.) legislative director has flown the coop.

Sam Wojcicki started a position earlier this month with the National Audubon Society. He's a senior director working on climate policy for the conservation group, which focuses on birds and bird habitats. Audubon lobbies the federal government on a range of issues, including climate change.

He spent the last three years with Spanberger. The congresswoman is ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee's Conservation, Research and Biotechnology Subcommittee and has worked to pass Audubon-approved climate legislation. Wojcicki is also an alumnus of Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.).

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has added a labor expert to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee's minority side.

Caitlin McKeon comes from the National Association of Manufacturers, where she was most recently an associate director for communications and brand-strategy operations. She has also worked in public affairs for the trade group, which spent nearly $12.7 million on its federal lobbying program last year.

McKeon is now a HELP Committee adviser on labor policy. Before moving to NAM, she worked for then-Sen. Dave Perdue (R-Ga.)

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), one of Congress's biggest advocates for senior citizens, has lost another staffer to AARP.

Gidget Benitez started at the interest group this month as a government-affairs director. AARP spent almost $16 million on its federal lobbying program last year and runs one of Washington's biggest in-house advocacy shops.

Benitez was most recently health-policy counsel to Schakowsky, who sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Budget Committee. The congresswoman also co-chairs the House Democratic Caucus Task Force on Aging and, before her election to Congress, directed the Illinois Council of Senior Citizens.

This isn't AARP's first time hiring directly from Schakowsky's office. Five years ago, the interest group added Schkowsky staffer Amy Kelbick (now at McDermottPlus) to its lobbying team. Another handful of ex-Schakowsky aides have later registered as lobbyists on AARP's behalf.

One of Sen. Ben Ray Luján's (D-N.M.) original House hires just keeps coming and going.

Aaron Trujillo, most recently Luján's deputy chief of staff, recently left the Senate for Strategies 360, where he's now vice president for federal relations. The firm made about $3.6 million in federal lobbying revenue in 2022, up 50% from the $2.3 million it brought in the year before.

Trujillo worked with Luján on and off since 2009, when he joined the then-freshman representative's congressional office as a legislative correspondent. He rose through the ranks before leaving for the Department of Commerce, only to return as a senior adviser to Luján at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He later worked as a lobbyist and vice president at Fulcrum Public Affairs before moving to Luján's Senate office, where he has worked since 2021.

Amid a push for mental-health-parity legislation, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has added a former health-care lobbyist to his Senate Finance staff.

Marielle Kress started with the committee this week as a senior health adviser. Her work will focus on Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Wyden is in the middle of a drive to beef up mental-health-parity laws, including requiring it of Medicaid and Medicare plans.

This is Kress's first job on the Hill. She previously worked as an American Academy of Pediatrics director and lobbyist and as a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services senior adviser. Most recently, she worked as an independent consultant.