Bottom Line: Penske signs Pelosi alum

Trucking

​Penske Truck Leasing Company hired OGR to lobby on issues related to the trucking industry, the Environmental Protection Agency, nitric oxide and dioxide (NOx) emissions and electric vehicles. One of the lobbyists on the account is ​Dean Aguillen, former senior adviser, director of member services and floor assistant to now-Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Food

Meat processing giant ​Perdue Farms hired Avoq, the firm formerly known as Team Subject Matter, to lobby on issues related to the food and agriculture industries. One of the lobbyists on the account is Bill ​Ghent, former chief of staff, legislative director and communications director to Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Social media

Pinterest registered its first in-house lobbyists to work on issues related to artificial intelligence (AI), copyright, content moderation and data privacy. The popular pinboard social media has had a lobbying presence in Washington since 2018 and has been steadily increasing its lobbying spending in recent years, paying firms Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and KDCR Partners a combined $220,000 last year.

The lobbyist is Jasmine ​Vasquez, former manager of government affairs and public policy at YouTube.

Budget

The National WIC Association, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), hired Valentine Strategies to lobby on issues related to FY2024 budget and appropriations. 

Some Republicans have pushed to cut popular food assistance programs and conservation programs in the farm bill, which expires at the end of September, in order to increase farm subsidies, which they say will help lower food costs. The Republican-led House farm bill draft would slash funding for WIC by 12 percent, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank. The Democratic Senate version of the bill has not yet been released.

Contracting

The government contracting giant SAIC hired Fox Potomac Resources to lobby on issues and opportunities related to Department of Energy contracts. The lobbyist on the account is the firm’s founder and president, Sean Todd.