LegiStorm

Biofuels trade group Growth Energy has a great relationship with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). Now, it has one of her staffers, too.

The trade group added Mary Kate Munro as a government-affairs director this month. Munro spent the last five years on Ernst's staff, most recently as a legislative assistant and the senator's top staffer on environment, energy and transportation issues. Ernst is ranking member of the Agriculture Committee's Rural Development and Energy Subcommittee.

Growth Energy has a solid relationship with the senator, who is an outspoken champion of the biofuel industry. The trade group regularly praises Ernst for introducing biofuel friendly legislation and perennially honors the senator with its annual Fueling Growth Award. The company's PAC also gave $10,000 to Ernst's campaign leading up to her 2020 reelection bid, according to Federal Election Commission data.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has landed in Taiwan, leading a congressional delegation on a controversial trip to the East Asian country. But for interest groups who send members and staff on privately funded trips, the destination hasn't been favored for close to a decade.

Privately sponsored trips to Taiwan used to be commonplace. Taiwan was the top foreign desination for such travel in 2004, according to LegiStorm data. Interest groups spent more than $736,000 to send 159 members and staff there that year.

The Taiwanese Association of America was the last to sponsor congressional travel to Taiwan, sending a group to Taipei in 2014.

U.S. relations with China have since tensed, and official visits like Pelosi's stoke fears about worsening relations and the possibility of a crisis in the Taiwan Strait.

Members and staff have not accepted private travel to China since 2019.  

Eagle Scout Day, officially Aug. 1, might as well be everyday on the Hill: Members of Congress have disproportionately earned the honor, according to LegiStorm data.

Of those currently serving in Congress, at least 5% of male representatives and 9% of male senators attained the Eagle Scout award in their youth.

The Boy Scouts of America have historically granted the Eagle Scout award, the organization's highest honor, to 2%-6% of all Boy Scouts. In 2010, a Gallup News poll found that about 39% of the general male population had ever claimed Boy Scouts membership.

Republicans make up three out of every four Eagle Scouts serving in the House and more than half in the Senate.

Unsurprisingly, Congress's Eagle Scouts are all men. But that may change with the times: The Boy Scouts of America now accepts girls after long restricting its membership to boys. The organization bestowed young women with its with Eagle Scout awards for the first time last year, and it's not implausible that female Eagle Scouts may join the halls of Congress in the next decade.

One of Rep. Anthony Gonzalez's (R-Ohio) top staffers has moved to a financial-services company.

Stephen Hostelley is now a government-relations director at Ally Financial. Ally, formerly the General Motors Acceptance Corp., spent almost $3.3 million on its federal lobbying program in the last year.

Hostelley was most recently Gonzalez's deputy chief of staff and legislative director. Gonzalez, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, is retiring at the end of this term. Hostelley got his start on the Hill working for then-Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio).

A Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah) staffer is moving to the fast-growing Boundary Stone Partners.

Rebekah Rodriguez starts soon as a federal-affairs director at the bipartisan firm, which specializes in climate and clean energy. BSP has brought in more than $2.7 million in federal lobbying revenue since January - almost double the firm's lobbying revenue at this point last year, according to LegiStorm data.

Rodriguez was most recently senior legislative assistant to Curtis, who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rodriguez was also deputy executive director of the Conservative Climate Caucus, which Curtis founded and chairs.