LegiStorm

This is a story that could be uplifting or send to you to the subbasement. National Elevator Industry Inc., which recently made news by admitting that most elevator's "close" buttons don't do anything, has begun lobbying the federal government.

According to the New York Times, the trade group's executive director revealed that the close-door feature was fazed out in the 1990s, disappointing workers who are just trying to get to their offices already.

The trade group is contracting with firm Findlay and Western Strategies for the lobbying work, which deals with Defense Department elevator design and acquisition.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which has long been allied with Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), has brought on the congressman's legislative director as its newest lobbyist.

Diane Cihota, now the organization's director of government relations and federal affairs, had worked for Miller's office since 2005.

The NSSF, which has spent at least $2.46 million on lobbying since January, has long championed Miller's legislation and, in 2011, named him as the organization's Legislator of the Year in 2011. Miller is retiring at the end of this term.

As the election nears and Republicans' continued congressional majority is called into question, lobbying firms have slowed down hiring of former GOP Hill staffers, according to LegiStorm lobbying data.

Republicans make up approximately 60 percent of ex-congressional staff who have registered as lobbyists so far this year. That number is substantially higher than the proportion of current GOP Hill staffers, who make up 56.7 percent of partisan House staffers and 50.3 percent of partisan Senate staffers.

However, the proportion of Republican staffers jumping to K Street has dropped in recent months: Republicans constitute only 48 percent of new revolvers since August.

Republicans risk losing their majority in both chambers, particularly the Senate, in this election, potentially resulting in the forced exodus of hundred or thousands of GOP staffers.

A veteran of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is joining the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as a policy assistant this month.

Janelle Johnson had worked for the committee since 2012, most recently as a Democratic legislative assistant and research assistant. She originally came to the Hill as a foreign policy fellow to Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) in 2012, shortly after completing an MPP program at the University of Chicago.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), ranking member of the committee, is involved with the memorial's governing body, the Holocaust Memorial Council, and serves as a special representative on anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance for the Organization Security and Cooperation in Europe parliamentary assembly.

A longtime lobbyist is back on the Hill as deputy chief of staff for Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.).

Elizabeth O'Hara co-founded O'Hara Federal Strategies with her father, Bartley O'Hara, in 2010, where she worked until moving to Neal's office this month. She previously spent a year lobbying for the Mizeur Group and four years for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

O'Hara first came to the Hill in 1993, as a staff assistant for former Rep. Thomas Manton (D-N.Y.) before spending five years with former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.).