Government Relations and Public Policy

In Washington, change is constant—yesterday’s strategy may not work today and could be detrimental by tomorrow. Participating in the legislative and regulatory process can have major benefits for your business.

Our lobbying practice was formed by two former congressional staffers over 60 years ago—a first mover among D.C. law firms— and has grown to a team of more than 30 bipartisan advocates who work in partnership with companies and organizations to develop and execute strategies to influence government policy.

What’s the key to our longevity?

We dive deeply into our clients’ issues and gain quick command of their markets, business operations, and aspirations. We are diligent in our preparation and utilize the diverse talents, experience and relationships of our team to ensure that government officials hear the position of the companies, industries and organizations we represent. Many of our clients have been with us for decades—they range from global industry leaders to small and family-owned businesses, to trade associations and coalitions that project the collective voice of an industry.

Bipartisan Advocacy with Experience that Matters

We have a decades-long track record of successful bipartisan advocacy for clients focusing on:

  • Healthcare
  • Trade
  • Privacy and Tech
  • Climate, Energy, and Environment
  • Infrastructure and Transportation
  • Tax
  • Financial Services
  • Defense

Our services include:

Integrated Strategic Campaigns

Whether you’re promoting reform, mitigating risk, or simply protecting your market share, you need sound strategic advice, deep experience, and a keen understanding of legislative and regulatory processes to help advance your agenda. We help clients prioritize issues for debate in the public sphere, seize new opportunities, and devise strategies that will be credible and compelling to decision makers. By crafting multi-disciplined, integrated advocacy campaigns, we help clients transform the narrative to win the support of policymakers, like-minded business partners, and key public stakeholders.

Legislative Advocacy

Our team emphasizes the key components of a successful legislative campaign—deep industry knowledge combined with strategic policy and legal insight. Our six decades of advocacy mean we’ve developed close working relationships and well-regarded reputations with decision-makers at all levels. We work with clients to help shape legislation—often identifying and involving key stakeholders and developing coalitions. For many clients we develop and execute multi-year legislative and regulatory campaigns while continually protecting their day-to-day interests in the nation’s capital. We frequently pursue a single objective through multiple venues, using law, economics, government relations, public relations, and grassroots advocacy to achieve our clients’ goals.

Regulatory Counseling

We represent clients before federal regulators, whose decisions on the implementation of laws can have an enormous impact on businesses. Our team of attorneys and government relations professionals represents clients in all aspects of agency advocacy, from informal communications to formal submissions to litigation when necessary. We also make sure that the agencies hear from congressional supporters of our clients when appropriate.

Campaign Finance and Political Law

Our campaign finance and political law team helps clients navigate the laws governing political participation, including federal and state campaigning finance, lobbying disclosure requirements, and government ethics laws. We work with corporations, individuals, trade associations, labor organizations, political committees, and tax-exempt entities across the country.

Uncovering Business Opportunities with Government Agencies

We find opportunities for companies to offer products, services and technologies in government procurement programs. We track agency budgets, identify departments and programs with relevant funding, make contacts with officials and staff, monitor developments and participate in events to gather intelligence about programs that create opportunities for our clients.

Team Members

Agriculture and Food

We represent a wide range of companies, associations and coalitions in the agricultural and food industry. We have worked on many congressional and regulatory issues and have advocated for clients on major federal legislation, including the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA); the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act; the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act; and the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act. We leverage the significant experience of our food and drug law practice to advise clients on congressional regulatory reform initiatives, as well as general compliance and enforcement efforts.

Budget and Appropriations

We have more than six decades of experience helping clients identify and expand funding opportunities through the budget and appropriations process. We help organizations think creatively about federal funding and rely on our bipartisan team to effectively advance our clients’ interests.

Buy America

We help clients navigate the patchwork of laws that require, or provide a preference for, the purchase or acquisition of goods, products, or materials produced in the United States. We engage with agencies implementing these laws and counsel clients on compliance and strategic considerations involving preferences under various federal-aid Buy America programs, the federal Buy American Act (BAA) and the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA), enacted as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

Defense

Together with the firm’s government contracts practice, we provide legislative advocacy related to federal contracts, including defense and national security issues. Our team has a deep understanding of the U.S. defense market with an emphasis on military hardware and equipment, federal procurement of goods and services, policy issues associated with defense depots, and in the construction and engineering services markets. We regularly interact with the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the Congressional Armed Services Committees.

Energy

We represent a broad range of companies and associations on energy-related issues, and our substantive experience is bolstered by our close collaboration with the firm’s regulatory practitioners and our decades of advocacy before Congress and the Executive Branch. We advocate on behalf of both conventional and alternative energy producers, as well as consumers, in a variety of industries. Our clients include some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, developers of new energy and energy efficiency technologies, energy-intensive manufacturers, and materials suppliers for all types of energy projects.

Environmental

We counsel clients on a broad range of federal legislative issues pertaining to air and water pollution, solid and hazardous waste, toxic substances, pesticides, endangered species, wetlands and biotechnology. On the administrative level, we advise and represent our clients on participation in rule-making and policy-making activities by federal regulatory agencies, including the EPA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Fisheries and Maritime

We have one of the nation’s foremost multidisciplinary practices in fisheries litigation, regional fishery management council advocacy, regulatory procedure and government relations. Our experience includes work on the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act, and the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act.

Healthcare

We provide clients with strategic advice and advocacy support on healthcare legislation and regulation affecting the rapidly changing industry. Our experience includes work on the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA); Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act; and the 21st Century Cures Act. In addition, our team has been engaged in various FDA user fee program reauthorizations as well as the legislative and regulatory response to recent public health emergencies including COVID-19, monkeypox, and the opioid epidemic. Our team also successfully advocated for health policy provisions included in recent omnibus appropriations laws, including the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Act, telehealth measures, and provisions to ensure access to clinical laboratory services.

International Trade

We have been at the forefront of trade issues for more than 60 years and have worked on all of the major trade legislation of the past few decades. We help clients remain competitive by promoting fair trade through the enforcement of international trade laws and agreements, as well as fight barriers to trade in a variety of international markets. We advocated on behalf of several industries before the Executive branch regarding implementation of Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs and engaged on behalf of those industries during the negotiation and implementation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Our experience includes customs and trade enforcement legislation, trade agreement implementing bills, trade preference legislation, miscellaneous tariff bills and advocacy related to trade and tariff-related administrative actions.

Privacy

Together with the firm’s preeminent privacy practice, we provide legislative and regulatory advocacy services to clients as Congress works to modernize the nation’s privacy laws. Members of our team have a unique perspective developed from years of serving at the FTC—including as bureau director, assistant director and attorney advisor—where they helped direct the implementation and enforcement of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) and other consumer protection laws. We help our clients in a range of scrutinized industries including consumer products and retail, financial services, technology, and healthcare—where data-sharing regulations and rapid technological advances are creating a dynamic and evolving policy landscape.

Tax

Together with our tax practice group, we advise clients on strategic tax planning issues related to current and pending legislation and regulations. We successfully advocate on behalf of our clients to reduce their tax burden, obtaining beneficial tax credits, deductions and depreciation changes.

Transportation and Infrastructure

We have experience with the development of numerous transportation and infrastructure policies, including those governing federal assistance programs for surface transportation, rail, aviation and clean and drinking water infrastructure. Our experience includes work on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; the Water Resources Development Acts; the Transportation Reauthorization Bill (TEA-21); the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Bill (MAP-21); the Coast Guard Authorization Act; The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA-LU); and the Surface Transportation Authorization Act.

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