LegiStorm

A K Street health-care lobbyist has moved back to the House.

Mariah Philips is now Rep. Tony Cárdenas's (D-Calif.) senior health adviser. She comes from Venn Strategies, where her lobbying clients were Rover Diagnostics, the American Diabetes Association and the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation.

Philips previously worked as scheduler to then-Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) before leaving the Hill for a Duke University graduate program.

Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (D) is lobbying Washington for the first time in nearly a decade.

Ballard Spahr recently added Rendell to its lobbying contracts with Lockheed Martin and biotech company Grail LLC, according to a pair of new disclosures. Rendell was last registered as a federal lobbyist in 2012, working through Ballard Spahr on behalf of medical-technology manufacturer KCI and satellite-communications company Ligado Networks.

Rendell was a partner at Ballard Spahr until taking office as governor in 2003. He rejoined the law firm in 2011, just after the end of his second term.

A Republican staffer is back to the House's Michigan delegation after a two-year stint on K Street.

Ali Fulling started this month as a policy adviser to Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.). She comes from TwinLogic Strategies, where she spent the last couple of years as a policy adviser and lobbyist. Her big-name clients included Twitter, T-Mobile and Pew Charitable Trusts.

Before leaving for TwinLogic, Fulling worked for Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and for the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Two Republicans are the latest former members to register as first-time lobbyists.

Former Reps. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) and Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) registered through Ervin Graves Strategy Group and Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs, respectively.

Graves is lobbying on behalf of seven clients, per a spate of recent disclosures: Coca-Cola, General Motors, General Dynamics, First Financial Loan Company, Everest Business Funding, Rock Central and the National Association of Credit Services Organizations. Graves co-founded the Ervin Graves Strategy Group shortly after resigning from office in October 2020.

Reichert, meanwhile, is lobbying on behalf of Thermo Fisher Scientific. He joined Gordon Thomas Honeywell as vice president after retiring from Congress in 2019.

They join one other former member, ex-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), in registering as first-time lobbyists during the 2021 Q4 disclosure period. Another, ex-Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), registered as a foreign agent during that same time period.

Former representatives are banned from lobbying Congress during their first year out of office; former senators face a two-year ban.

A House staffer and Marine Corps veteran has headed to the Heritage Foundation's government-relations team.

Andrew Braun joined the conservative think tank from the office of Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), where he was military legislative assistant. Lamborn is ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces Subcommittee and received a perfect rating on Heritage's most-recent legislative scorecard.

Heritage Action, the foundation's advocacy wing, spent $560,000 on in-house lobbying last year. That's a nearly 50 percent increase over its 2020 lobbying expenses. Braun is one of Heritage's first congressional hires since new president Kevin Roberts took charge of the think tank in October.