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Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Sept. 11, 2020
A former Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee staffer has moved to a health-focused lobbying shop.
Brett Meeks is now vice president at Horizon Government Affairs. He comes immediately from the Center for Medical Interoperability, where he was vice president for policy and legal issues. He also founded his own firm, DEFCON Strategies, earlier this year.
Before branching into lobbying, Meeks spent four years working on health policy for Sen. Lamar Alexander's (R-Tenn.) HELP Committee and another four years in Alexander's personal office.
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Sept. 10, 2020
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) has added a familiar face to a government coronavirus oversight program.
Brett Doyle is now a senior adviser to the COVID-19 Congressional Oversight Commission under Toomey. Toomey is one of of four (eventually five) members of the commission, which was created by the CARES Act to focus on economic stabilization. Doyle previously spent six years in the senator's personal office before leaving for the Senate Republican Policy Committee in 2017.
Doyle most recently worked for the Environmental Protection Agency, where he was an associate administrator for public engagement and environmental education.
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Sept. 9, 2020
A Democratic aide is back on the Hill after a year and a half lobbying for a trial lawyers' trade group.
Earl Flood is now counsel to Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.). He comes from the American Association for Justice, where he lobbied on a host of issues as the organization's federal-relations counsel. AAJ spent more than $5.3 million on federal lobbying in the last year.
Before joining the trade group in 2019, Flood worked as a policy aide to ex-Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Sept. 8, 2020
A controversial doctor and vitamin salesman who's claimed that his supplements could cure AIDS has hired two former Republican members of Congress for work on COVID-19 therapies.
The Dr. Rath Research Institute entered into separate contracts with ex-Reps. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and John Doolittle (R-Calif.), according to a pair of filings released over the weekend. The institute, founded by German-born physician Matthias Rath, touts nutritional supplements as a way to fight the current pandemic and lists their benefits over a potential coronavirus vaccine. Dr. Rath has previously made claims that nutritional supplements, which he also sells, could cure HIV/AIDS, cancer and other diseases.
Burton and Doolittle are no strangers to controversial causes. Both have registered as lobbyists for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, founded by the Church of Scientology. Burton is also a staunch anti-vaccination advocate who used his Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairmanship to push scientifically dubious links between vaccines and autism.
Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Sept. 3, 2020
Retired Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) has made his lobbying debut.
Duncan joins veteran D.C. and Alabama lobbyist Braxton Counts to lobby on behalf of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport Authority, located in Virginia. Duncan served in Congress from 1988 until the end of last term.
The pair registered their operation, DuncanCounts LLP, earlier this year. Counts had lobbied on the CARES Act for the airport authority starting in April. They disclosed Duncan's addition to the contract earlier this week. This is the congressman's first federal lobbying registration.
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.
