LegiStorm

Interest groups are making up for lost time, spending on private congressional travel at the highest election-year rate since 2014.

Private groups have already spent more than $1.9 million to court members and staff so far this year, according to LegiStorm data. By this time in 2018 and 2016, they'd spent a respective $1.7 million and $1.8 million on private travel.

That makes this the highest election-year spending since 2014, when sponsors had dropped almost $2.7 million by this point in the year. Privately sponsored travel is typically much lower in election years.

Congressional travel halted as the pandemic hit in March 2020 and began to rebound in 2021.

The American Israel Education Foundation, a perennial top spender on such trips, has particularly compensated for any influence it may have lost during the pandemic's early years. A sister organization to the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying group, AIEF spent more than $1.2 million on 45 representatives and seven staffers in February - almost two-thirds of all money spent on private trips this year.

The interest group spent an average of more than $24,000 per member and $14,000 per staffer to fly the group to Tel Aviv, Israel, where they each stayed for five to eight days and attended an educational seminar on U.S.-Israel relations and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Representatives in attendance included House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

Other sponsors are taking a similar approach, opting to send members and staff on a smaller number of more expensive trips compared to years past. In addition to the AIEF travel, Congress has accepted 391 trips at an average cost of $1,800. At this point in 2018, sponsors averaged $1,400 each across 1,203 trips.

Ex-Rep. Devin Nunes's (R-Calif.) final chief of staff has joined Big Tobacco.

Jilian Souza joined Altria this month as a senior director for federal government affairs. Altria, one of the world's biggest tobacco producers, disclosed spending more than $12.3 million on federal lobbying through a subsidiary in the last year.

Souza joined Nunes's office as a staff assistant in 2014 and worked her way up to chief of staff, a position she held when Nunes resigned from Congress in January to lead the Trump Media & Technology Group.

Rep. Alma Adams' (D-N.C.) chief of staff has made his first move to K Street.

John Christie started yesterday as senior vice president at the Smith-Free Group. The bipartisan lobbying group counts MasterCard, Intuit, Kroger and Sony Pictures among its big-name clients.

Christie spent the five years with Adams' office, working his way up from legislative assistant to chief of staff. He's also worked for Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.).

As Russia's economy flails, its largest technology company has hired its first Washington lobbyists.

Former Rep. Filemón Vela (D-Texas) has officially registered as a lobbyist, just five weeks after resigning from Congress to join Akin Gump.

Vela is part of a small Akin Gump team lobbying for the Port of Corpus Christi, located just outside of Vela's former congressional district. According to a recent disclosure, the law firm signed the port last week for work on unspecified transportation and infrastructure issues.

The filing does not specify whether the team is lobbying federal agencies or Congress. Former members are required to wait one year from the time they leave Congress before lobbying the House or Senate, per ethics rules, but are not prohibited from lobbying the executive branch before the one-year mark. Most ex-members who sign with a lobbying firm wait at least a year before becoming registered lobbyists. Vela left the House effective March 31.