LegiStorm

A Democratic House staffer is flying high with a new job at JetBlue.

Natalie Martinez joined the airline this month as government-affairs manager. She comes from the office of Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), where she was a senior policy adviser.

The Orlando International Airport, one of JetBlue's focus cities, falls just outside of Murphy's congressional district.

Martinez has also worked for Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.).

Correction: An earlier version of this piece erroneously listed JetBlue campaign contributions.

After two gigs with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), one former staffer is cooking with gas.

Andrew Healey is now a legislative-affairs manager for the National Propane Gas Association. The trade group lobbies on a wide range of issues, from the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act to propane's treatment by the Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards program.

Healey originally joined Ernst's office in 2015 before leaving for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also worked for the Department of Homeland Security before rejoining the senator's office as operations manager earlier this year.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has a new legislative director — a longtime lobbyist who's no stranger to the Senate.

Amanda Miller comes to Gillibrand's office from Seventh Street Strategies, where she worked on education issues. Miller first opened the one-woman lobbying shop in 2005 and has returned to it periodically throughout the years.

Miller's experience includes a brief stint with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) last fall as special counsel to the Judiciary Committee during Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation. She's also worked for Teach for America's in-house lobbying team and, in the early 2000s, held another counsel position with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A former Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) staffer has found her way back to the congressman's office.

Renée Gamela started this month as deputy chief of staff to Thompson, the House Agriculture Committee's top Republican. Gamela comes from Powell Tate, where she was vice president for public affairs. She did not register as a lobbyist.

Before joining the public-affairs firm last year, she was Thompson's communications director. She's also worked for then-Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.).

Congress could better attract and retain talented staff if only offices were allotted a bigger budget — so goes the oft-repeated theory. But representatives are already spending the smallest proportion of their budgets in years, leaving the average office with hundreds of thousands of dollars a year that could have gone to hiring and wage increases.

The average representative spent less than 39 percent her or his member repesentational allowance in the first half of the year, according to figures compiled by LegiStorm. That number has decreased every year since at least 2018, when members had spent 41.5 percent of their budgets in the same time period.

If members continue their current pace, the average office will end the year more than $336,000 under budget — money that could be directed toward staffer pay.

Congress saving on unused funds may be good news for taxpayers. But staffers continue to cite low pay, especially for entry-level positions, as a deterrant to working on the Hill.

A month ago, the House raised the maximum allowable staffer salary from $173,900 to $199,300. But most staffer salaries are nowhere near the cap. The average GOP House aide now makes $54,600 per year, while her or his Democratic counterpart brings home $56,500. Staff assistants, one of the Hill's lowest-paid titles, have a median pay of $38,106.