LegiStorm

Two more ex-members have officially passed through the revolving door.

Alpine Advisers recently added former Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) to its lobbying contract with ASML US, a subsidiary of Dutch multinational corporation ASML Holdings. ASML Holdings develops and produces systems that are used in semiconductor manufacturing. Walden was formerly ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Former Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) also registered as a lobbyist on behalf of Mewbourne Oil Co. Olson and former Rep. Jim Turner (D-Texas) are part of a Hance Scarborough team working on oil and natural-gas leasing, drilling and operating issues for the Southwestern producer.

Both Olson and Turner retired from Congress at the end of last term and are newly eligible to lobby the House under ethics rules. Former Reps. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.), Pete King (R-N.Y.), Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Martha Roby (R-Ala.) have also registered as first-time lobbyists in the year's first quarter.

After working for four congressional Republicans and the Trump administration, a Hill staffer has made his first pass through the revolving door for the renewable-energy sector.

Blake Deeley, most recently Rep. Dan Meuser's (R-Pa.) legislative director, is now director of federal affairs for the American Clean Power Association. He's already registered as a lobbyist for the association, which spent more than $1.9 million on its federal lobbying program in 2021. The Energy Storage Association, a recent ACPA acquisition, disclosed another $80,000 on lobbying last year.

Before joining Meuser's office last year, Deeley served as special assistant to then-President Donald Trump and as an adviser at the Department of the Interior. He's also held positions with Rep. David McKinley (R-W.V.), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

A GOP staffer is back to the Hill, now with agricultural lobbying experience under his belt.

Coleman Garrison is now a professional staff member to the Senate Agriculture Committee under Ranking Member John Boozman (R-Ark.). Garrison comes from the Irrigation Association, where he was a government and public-affairs director and lobbied on agricultural and environmental issues for the trade group.

Before leaving the Hill for the National Association of Conservation Districts in 2016, Garrison worked for Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) and for then-Reps. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.) and Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas).

Former Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) is the latest ex-member of Congress to officially pass through the revolving door.

Byrne is lobbying through law firm Adams and Reese on behalf of seven clients, all based in Alabama: Baldwin County; the cities of Mobile, Foley and Daphne; Troy University; and defense contractors Radiance Technologies and Torch Technologies.

Byrne left the House at the end of last term following a failed Senate bid. He joined Adams and Reese as a special counsel shortly after and is newly eligible to lobby the House under ethics rules.

The United Nations has condemned the Judge Rotenberg Center for torture, thanks to its ongoing use of electroshock on disabled children and adults. Now, former Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) has registered as a first-time lobbyist for the Massachusetts facility.

King is working for the center through law firm Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, where he works as special counsel. The JRC is a day and residential school for those with autism, developmental disabilities and "emotional [disturbances]," according to its website.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture reported in 2013 that the JRC's use of electroshock violated the UN Convention Against Torture and called for an investigation into the practices. Although the Food and Drug Administration tried to ban the practice in 2020, the Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ban last summer and ruled that the JRC could continue to shock its residents.

The JRC "is believed to be the only school in the world that routinely inflicts high-powered electric shocks as a form of punishment on vulnerable children and adults," the Guardian reported in 2018.

King, alongside ex-Rep. and veteran lobbyist Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), is lobbying the House on the center's behalf. They're working on education appropriations and unspecified "education and [health-care] policy related to people with disabilities," according to a pair of recent disclosures. King retired from Congress at the end of last term, making him newly eligible to lobby the House under ethics rules.