A returning legislative aide for Dick Durbin is back in familiar territory after moving a fourth time through the revolving door between K Street and the Capitol.
Mark Palmer rejoins Durbin's office after a three-year period of registering to lobby for Palmer Policy Group LLC and Van Ness Feldman LLP, where he was senior director between 2011 and 2014. Palmer also worked from 2009 to 2011 as senior adviser and director of external affairs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The former lobbyist has held several previous jobs on the Hill, starting as a legislative intern for Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) in 1995 before moving to Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) office. Between 1999 and 2003, Palmer worked for Durbin on agriculture issues.
Palmer took his first advocacy job at the National Corn Growers Association and registered to lobby there then at Gordley Associates from 2004 to 2007. He returned to the Hill briefly between 2007 and 2009 as agriculture counsel for the House Small Business Committee.
In Durbin's office now, Palmer once again covers agriculture and food issues as well as animals, commerce, government operations and politics, labor and employment and science and technology. He has registered to lobby on similar issues during periods off the Hill over the last decade.
