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Caught Our Eye items are posted daily. LegiStorm Pro subscribers have access to all posts a few hours before other users, and are also able to search the full Caught Our Eye archive. Log in as a LegiStorm Pro user or learn more about subscribing.

Ex-Rep. Filemón Vela fast tracks lobbying registration

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on May 9, 2022

Former Rep. Filemón Vela (D-Texas) has officially registered as a lobbyist, just five weeks after resigning from Congress to join Akin Gump.

Vela is part of a small Akin Gump team lobbying for the Port of Corpus Christi, located just outside of Vela's former congressional district. According to a recent disclosure, the law firm signed the port last week for work on unspecified transportation and infrastructure issues.

The filing does not specify whether the team is lobbying federal agencies or Congress. Former members are required to wait one year from the time they leave Congress before lobbying the House or Senate, per ethics rules, but are not prohibited from lobbying the executive branch before the one-year mark. Most ex-members who sign with a lobbying firm wait at least a year before becoming registered lobbyists. Vela left the House effective March 31.

GOP Homeland Security staffer heads to AWS

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on May 5, 2022

A Republican House staffer has moved to Amazon Web Services's government-affairs and public-policy team.

Jon Ferro is now a public-policy specialist for the cloud-computing giant. Amazon and its subsidiaries, including AWS, spent more than $19.3 million on federal lobbying last year, according to Open Secrets.

Ferro comes from the House Homeland Security Committee, where he was deputy general counsel under ranking member John Katko (R-N.Y.). He's also worked for then-Reps. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) and Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.).

Spotify hires from Senate Judiciary Committee

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on May 3, 2022

Spotify has added a longtime Senate Judiciary staffer to its D.C. team, just as some members of Congress call for the streaming giant to face the music over part of its artist-royalty structure.

Scott Wilson, now a Spotify director for government affairs, comes from the Judiciary Committee's Intellectual Property Subcommittee. He was a senior adviser under subcommittee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Wilson has also worked for the full committee, for Leahy's personal office and for Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.).

Last summer, the House Judiciary Committee probed the streaming giant over its Discovery Mode feature, which reportedly allows artists to trade higher streaming priority for certain songs in exchange for reduced royalty rates. Several Democratic representatives renewed their criticism over the feature last month, labeling Discovery Mode as a "troubling move ... that sacrifices honesty in the name of profit."

For a handful of members, Hill jobs continue after their terms

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on May 2, 2022

Many members have spent time working as staffers before their election to Congress. But a handful of members just can't stay away from Congress, taking jobs as staffers after their terms have come to an end.

Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) recently left his position as a top staffer on the House's Jan. 6 Committee, where he'd been a senior technical adviser since August. Riggleman, who's joining a nonprofit working with Ukraine, left Congress at the end of last term after losing his 2020 primary bid.

Riggleman leaves behind two fellow ex-members who are still working as staffers: Former Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.) is a regional director for Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), while former Rep. Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.) serves as Rep. John Rose's (R-Tenn.) chief of staff.

In the last 20 years, only a handful of other members have worked as congressional staff after their time in office:

  • Former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) briefly served as a special adviser to then-Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).
  • Former Rep. Rod Grams (R-Minn.) served as interim chief of staff and then part-time adviser to then-Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.).
  • Former Rep. Herb Klein (D-N.J.) served as Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) communications director.

Others, including former Reps. Judy Biggert (D-Ill.) and Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), have gone on to serve on the House Office of Congressional Ethics board.

Democratic staffer heads back to government relations

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on April 28, 2022

A veteran lobbyist-turned-Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) staffer has returned to the government-affairs world.

Jayne Fitzgerald is now a government-relations director at the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. The trade group spent $1.7 million on its federal lobbying program in the last year and is also active at the state level.

She was most recently economic policy adviser to Pascrell, who sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Fitzgerald has also worked as a registered lobbyist at Akin Gump, among other lobbying groups, and is an alum of the House Ways and Means Committee.

About Caught Our Eye

We spend a large part of our days looking at data. Documents often come in by the dozens and hundreds. And while most are boring - how interesting can staring at a phone directory or salary records be, for example? - we find daily reasons for interest, amusement or even concern packed in the documents. So we are launching a new running feature that we call "Caught our Eye."

Longer than tweets but shorter than most blog posts, Caught our Eye items will bring back the interest in reviewing documents and researching people. Some items might bring hard, breaking news. Others will raise eyebrows and lead some into further inquiry. Others might be good for a joke or two around the water cooler. All will enlighten about the people or workings of Capitol Hill.

Caught our Eye items will be published each morning for LegiStorm Pro subscribers. Non-Pro site users will be able to receive the news items a few hours later. In addition to having immediate access to the news, LegiStorm Pro users will have a handy way to search and browse all past items.