LegiStorm

A veteran GOP Senate counsel has finally made a lobbyist of himself, thanks to a new job with the Health Industry Distributors Association.

Patrick Bailey is now the trade group's vice president for congressional relations. He's already registered as a lobbyist on health-care, trade and tariff issues.

Bailey most recently worked for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where he was GOP chief counsel for government affairs. He left the Hill last winter when Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) took over as the committee's top Republican member.

Rep. Eric Swalwell's (D-Calif.) newest hire spent the last three years as a lobbyist for trial attorneys.

Brian McMillan comes from the American Association for Justice, where he was federal-relations counsel. The trade group spent nearly $4.6 million on its federal lobbying program in the last year.

McMillan is now senior counsel handling Swalwell's judiciary portfolio, among other issues. Swalwell's campaign regularly accepts money from the American Association for Justice PAC, including $7,500 last election cycle, according to FEC records.

Former Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) is officially a foreign agent, thanks to Cambodia's growing D.C. presence.

Brownstein Hyatt recently added Pryor to its contract with the government of Cambodia, which began in 2019. The work is for unspecified "government relations services and strategic counsel on matters before the U.S. government." Pryor, whose Senate career ran from 2003-2015, joined the law firm about a year ago.

Cambodia has been shelling out big on its Washington representation, last month adding contracts with Qorvis and Tricuro on top of its existing relationships with both Brownstein Hyatt and PacRim Bridges.

Ex-Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) has registered as a first-time lobbyist on behalf of part of his former congressional district.

He's part of a McKeon Group team lobbying for Louisiana's Bossier Parish, part of the district that Fleming represented in Congress. The work focuses on defense and education issues, according to a recent disclosure. Fleming served in Congress from 2009 to 2017 and joined the McKeon Group last spring.

McKeon is only the eighth ex-member to pass through the revolving door this year. By this time in 2020, 17 former members had registered as lobbyists. Members have a mandatory "cooling-off" period that requires them to wait one year before doing any lobbying work, so it's normal to see fewer new lobbying registrations from ex-members in the year following an election.

A Democratic Senate staffer has launched a new career with SpaceX.

Joe Petrzelka joined the aerospace giant from the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), where he was a legislative assistant. He's also worked for then-Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Petrzelka is now a global government-affairs manager for SpaceX, which many experts now predict will surpass the value of fellow Elon Musk behemoth Tesla. SpaceX has disclosed spending nearly $2.3 million on its federal lobbying program in the last year.