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Posted by Keturah Hetrick on May 19, 2021
A GOP staffer to the House Budget Committee has left the Hill for a Koch brothers' lobbying group.
Gary Haglund is now a senior policy adviser at Americans for Prosperity. The influential right-wing advocacy group serves as the primary lobbying outfit to funders David and Charles Koch.
Haglund spent the last four years with House Budget Republicans, most recently as a policy adviser.
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on May 17, 2021
Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.), Congress's newest member, included a controversial hire among his first staff picks.
So far Carter's top hire is deputy chief of staff Tres Bernhard, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2013. The now-disbarred attorney admitted to diverting more than $450,000 from his then-law firm for his personal use and was sentenced to 27 months in prison.
Bernhard most recently served as a district staffer to ex-Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), whose seat Carter now fills.
Carter has also hired Gabrielle Howard as digital director and legislative assistant and Nick Strother as a legislative assistant. Howard comes from the office of Rep. Filemón Vela (D-Texas), while Strother is new to the Hill.
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on May 13, 2021
A major health-care IT supplier has upped its government-affairs team with the addition of a former House chief of staff.
Monica Cloud is now senior director and chief of staff for government services at Cerner. The S&P 500 company lobbies mainly on defense and health-care issues.
Cloud was previously chief of staff to Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) and has also served as deputy chief and legislative director to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on May 10, 2021
A GOP staffer has launched a new career with Axiom Space, which is set to make history with the first fully private human mission to the International Space Station.
Erica Lefaive recently joined Axiom as a government affairs and human spaceflight business-development specialist. NASA and Axiom announced today that the Axiom Mission 1 will launch four private astronauts to the ISS as soon as next January.
Before this, Lefaive was a legislative assistant to Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas). Weber sits on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and co-chairs the Space and Aeronautics Caucus. His congressional district sits just outside of Houston, where Axiom is based.
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on May 7, 2021
An aide has returned to the House after holding a leadership position with the Department of Energy.
Lou Hrkman is now a senior policy adviser to the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis under Ranking Member Garret Graves (R-La.).
He spent the last three years as deputy assistant secretary at DOE's Office of Fossil Energy. Before that, he was Rep. David McKinley's policy adviser on energy and environment issues. He's also worked for House Energy and Commerce Committee's Energy Subcommittee and for Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.).
correction: An earlier version of this piece erroneously listed Lou Hrkman's current office.
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.
