LegiStorm

Rep. Ron Kind's (D-Wis.) scheduler has taken his executive planning skills to a tax preparation giant for a government relations job.

H&R Block regularly registers to lobby on taxation issues, specifically this year on improving tax administration and preventing tax fraud. Wade Balkonis has not yet filed a lobbying registration, but he started this month as government relations professional with the company.

H&R Block has also filed to promote minimum competency standards for tax preparers and has lobbied against simple tax filing.

Balkonis has just over a year of experience as a Hill staffer with Kind, and also served as a constituent relations intern for Kind in 2011. He started his scheduler position with the congressman in 2014 after working in the office of the Milwaukee mayor.

Balkonis has a Midwest background with a bachelor's in global politics from Marquette University and a master's in public policy and administration from Northwestern University.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has powered his office with a new scheduler who worked in policy and government relations at Edison Electric Institute.

Ariel McCord never filed a lobbying registration for the association of shareholder-owned electric power companies, but she has worked at EEI since 2011, most recently as senior coordinator of policy and external affairs. She started with Thornberry this month after leaving K Street behind.

EEI registers to lobby regularly on a range of environmental, energy, taxation, homeland security and transportation issues. McCord joined EEI a year after graduating from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor's in political science, corporate strategy and philosophy.

Former Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) legislative director until his surprise ouster from Congress has returned to the Hill from K Street.

Cortney Bush was Cantor's top legislative staffer for more than a year, departing his House job in November and moving to ML Strategies LLC to serve as director of government relations. After less than a year, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) has brought him back to the Hill as a senior policy adviser.

Bush worked in a series of jobs in Republican offices after graduating with a bachelor's in political science from Washington State University in 2007, beginning with Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.). He served as legislative assistant in the office Rep. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) after a brief stint with the Treasury Department and moved to his position with Cantor in 2013.

In his most recent job, Bush registered to lobby for a variety of clients, including eBay Inc. the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and T-Mobile USA Inc. The NCTA previously funded a trip he took while working for Bono to Boston in 2012 for the company's convention. 

Bush is covering commerce, science and technology and telecommunications issues for Moran.

Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) has hired back a former legislative director who left her staff in 2005 for government affairs work.

Darin Gardner worked for Granger between 2002 and 2005, departing for Genentech Inc., and has returned from lobbying to serve as her chief of staff. Gardner has registered to lobby over the last six years with Genentech Inc. and Jochum Shore and Trossevin PC.

Granger's previous chief of staff, Steve Ruhlen, held the job for only about a month. He came to the position from working on federal government advocacy strategies for clients with Ruhlen Strategies LLC, according to his Facebook page, and has also worked for Vice President Dick Cheney and several House Republicans.

Ruhlen replaced Shannon Meade, who held the job since January and left in July after six months. 

Granger's new chief of staff has registered to lobby this year for a range of clients, including Snapchat Inc., Lyft Inc. and Target Corp. Gardner also has past congressional experience with Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee between 2000 and 2002.

Gardner has a 1995 bachelor's in political science from Henderson State University.

Former House legislative director David Malech is getting behind the government affairs wheel at a South Korean auto company several months after his boss left office.

Malech is the new general manager of government affairs at Kia Motors Corp. He has extensive experience with Republicans in Congress, departing in January as Rep. John Campbell's (R-Calif.) legislative director when Campbell retired. He led legislative efforts for Campbell for eight years after returning from a lobbying stint with the Gallatin Group.

Malech first came to the Hill as a staff assistant in the office of Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) in 1991 following his graduation from the University of Texas at Austin. He rose through several legislative positions with Gramm and moved in 1997 to the office of Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) where he served until 2006.

Between 2006 and 2007, Malech registered to lobby with the Gallatin Group for a variety of organizations, including Microsoft Corp. several seafood groups and Officemax Inc. He left his lobbying job for a legislative director position with Campbell in 2007.

Kia registers to lobby on issues affecting the automotive industry. With Campbell, Malech's issue portfolio included transportation and public works as well as foreign trade and international finance. He has not yet filed a lobbying registration with Kia after his August start.