LegiStorm

Nearly a dozen representatives have missed this year's filing deadline for personal financial disclosures.

Personal financial disclosures provide the public with important information about members' assets, debts and potential conflicts of interest. Members' annual reports are due on May 15 each year. Members have the option to file for an extension that allows them to delay their filings until up to Aug. 13 for representatives and Aug. 14 for senators.

According to a LegiStorm review of House Clerk's Office data, eleven members have yet to file their annual disclosures this year: Reps. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), John Rose (R-Tenn.), George Santos (R-N.Y.), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), as well as Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands).

Except for Bera and Plaskett, each of those members filed for an extension in May. The Clerk's Office has published neither an annual report nor a letter of extension for Bera nor Plaskett this year.

It's not uncommon for members to file for an extension - 45 senators and 241 representatives did so this year. Members are subject to a $200 fine for filing their report more than 30 days after the original or extended deadline, per House and Senate Ethics rules.

Last year, then-Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) was the last member to file his disclosure, doing so three days before his term's end. Another, then-Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), does not appear to have filed an annual report that year at all.

Nine representatives have filed reports since Aug. 13. All senators filed their reports before the Senate's Aug. 14 extended due date.

An Obama appointee-turned-JUUL lobbyist has found his way to the Ways and Means Committee.

Jim Esquea is new to committee Democrats as a senior adviser working on worker and family-support issues. He was most recently vice president of public affairs at Scotts Miracle-Gro and is a former lobbyist for JUUL Labs, maker of the JUUL e-cigarette.

Esquea spent six years as Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary for legislation during the Obama administration. He's also an alumnus of the Senate Budget Committee and Bill Clinton's Office of Management and Budget.

House Democrats are spending this month in relative hiding from constituents.

Democratic representatives have so far scheduled only 41 town halls during the August recess, according to LegiStorm data. House Republicans have scheduled 83 - more than double that of Democrats.

All but five of Democrats' town halls and all but four of Republicans' will be held in person.

During last year's August recess, House Democrats held 104 town halls. House Republicans held 100.

Reps. Tracey Mann (R-Kan.) and Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) hold this recess's record for the most town halls. Mann held 16 events in early August; Brecheen will hold 16 this week. 

After 10 years on the Hill, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers' (R-Wash.) legislative director is betting the farm on her new job.

Liz Payne started this month with Bunge Ltd. as government-affairs director. The agribusiness and food-industry company, which focuses on plant-based products, runs a small in-house lobbying team.

Payne is an alumnus of former Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Colo.) and then-Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), in addition to her work for McMorris Rodgers, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Rep. Claudia Tenney's (R-N.Y.) chief of staff has traded the Hill for foreign-affairs advocacy.

Nick Stewart is now senior director of government relations at FDD Action, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies's lobbying affiliate. FDD is an officially nonpartisan think tank that advocates for a neoconservative approach to foreign policy and national security. FDD Action's federal lobbying work focuses on defense, foreign policy and banking issues.

Stewart was Tenney's chief of staff until 2017, when he left for the State Department. He rejoined Tenney's office in early 2021, when Tenney rejoined Congress after losing her 2018 reelection bid. Tenney is a part of the House Democracy Partnership commission and sits on the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Science Committee.