Politico 

K Street gets peek at House agenda

By Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman

Senior House Republican leadership aides gave K Street lobbyists a peak at their September agenda, just days before lawmakers come back to Washington, according to several sources present.

The lobbyists were briefed the same day Republican lawmakers got a memo from Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) about the month’s agenda. In fact, the lobbyists got more information than the lawmakers did in their memo.

The two lawmakers’ aides held separate meeting. Scalise’s top aides — chief of staff Lynell Ruckert and Policy Director Bill Hughes — indicated that the Export-Import Bank’s expiring charter would be dealt with at some point over the next two weeks, according to a source in the meeting. A moratorium on an Internet tax will also be included, they said. The sessions also provided lobbyists with an opportunity to meet the new leadership team’s top advisers.

Tim Berry, McCarthy’s chief of staff, said in the meeting in the Capitol that the House would attempt to move a bill to fund the government next week. The funding would keep the government operating until the week of Dec. 11-14. Funding currently runs out at the end of September. An aide to McCarthy told POLITICO that no final decisions have been made on timing for a government-funding vote.

There were more than 50 lobbyists in the McCarthy briefing in the Capitol, including Elena Tompkins of Tompkins Strategies, Pat Raffaniello of Raffaniello & Associates, Missy Edwards of Missy Edwards Strategies, Con Lass of Ogilvy Government Relations, Manny Rossman of Squire Patton Boggs, Brian Vanderbloemen of McGuireWoods Consulting, Steve Tilton of Crossroads Strategies, David French of the National Retail Federation and Malloy McDaniel of Blank Rome Government Relations.

“It was a good chance when things are flat to meet with the policy team about what’s going to happen in the next two-week stretch,” said one lobbyist, who attended the McCarthy session.