LegiStorm

An Arkansas native has parlayed study at agriculture law and work for industry crafting legislative strategy into a new job as a Republican counsel for the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Blake Rollins, who hails from Conway, Ark., graduated last year from the University of Arkansas School of Law with an LLM in agriculture and food law. Since then, he served as Special Assistant to the Keys Group, working for livestock industry clients to craft legislative strategy, according to his LinkedIn profile. He followed that this year with a regulatory and legal internship through the Fertilizer Institute, an important agriculture industry lobby. 

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), ranking member of Senate Agriculture, tapped Rollins to be a counsel in March.

Rollins might be a threat in the congressional softball league, if he decides to play. At Hendrix College and Taylor University, where he ultimately graduated with a bachelor's degree, Rollins was on the college baseball team. One summer in college, he played baseball for Athletes in Action, touring Nicaragua, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

Boosted by a notably globe-hopping February, privately funded trips taken during the first quarter by Congress topped $1.5 million for the second consecutive year, according to LegiStorm data.

Private sponsors spent $1.51 million on trips for members of Congress and their staffs during the first quarter of this year, a dip from the $1.63 million spent in the first quarter last year, which was the highest since a series of scandals prompted Congress to pass reforms in 2007 that limited lobbyists' ability to fund travel.

More than half that total, or $850,000, was spent in February, marking the busiest month - excluding traditionally travel-heavy August - in more than 8 years.

Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.), a House Armed Services Committee member, and his wife Denise took the most expensive trip. Their week spent in Adelaide, Australia cost Australian defense industry nonprofit Defence Teaming Centre Inc. $49,635. In fact, it was the most expensive trip on record. The second-most expensive trip, by Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) to Tanzania and the Sudan, cost $40,083.

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) is speaking at a town hall about violence, economic challenges and other leading problems facing citizens - citizens of a large African country, that is.

Next week, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee will address a town hall, which will be hosted by the Enough Project and the Jewish World Watch, about the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The event, which will include experts on the country, will take place Wednesday at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen much violence since the end of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, when armed Hutus fled the country at the end of the 100 days of killing. Since then, the DR Congo's government has battled Rwandan-backed militia men, with both sides often using rape as a weapon of war. This week in a mass trial of 39 government soldiers, two soldiers were convicted of rape, with many cleared or convicted on lesser charges in the mass rape of 130 women and girls.

The Californian Democrat has held town halls in the past that have centered on foreign policy. In September, she held a telephone town hall on the possible U.S. military intervention in Syria. 

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has found someone to replace her grandson as chief of staff in her personal office.

Twaun Samuel, a senior counsel to her on the House Financial Services, has taken over the gatekeeping duties in Waters' office. He replaces Mikael Moore, who stood out for also being the lawmaker's grandson. Moore left to work in the entertainment industry. His tenure was controversial, not only because of concerns about nepotism but also because the House Ethics Committee reprimanded him in 2012 for officially assisting a bank in which the congresswoman's husband owned hundreds of thousands of dollars in shares.

Samuel, who holds both bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Mississippi, has worked for the California Democrat since 2009, becoming legislative counsel following a brief internship. Having celebrated his 30th birthday in April, Samuel is one of the youngest chiefs of staff on Capitol Hill. The average age of a House chief of staff is 44, according to LegiStorm's biographical data.

While on the Financial Services Committee staff, Samuel covered a variety of banking issues, including Wall Street reform and systemic risk. 

In addition to his work for the committee, Samuel also previously volunteered for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, helping organize the organization's Annual Legislative Conference.

Jennifer Boyer, former senior adviser to Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), has taken an advocacy job at a pharmaceutical company.

Boyer is now director of policy and advocacy at Alkermes Inc. She has not yet registered as a lobbyist.

Boyer, who holds a master's degree in public health, began advising Roberts on health policy issues in late 2010. While working for Roberts, she led efforts to educate Kansas residents on health care issues and provide care for rural areas of the state. During her time on Capitol Hill she also served on the Health Care Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee.

Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Alkermes manufactures a variety of drugs that target diseases affecting the central nervous system.