Former aides to new Biden Cabinet members cash in on lobbying gigs
24 March 2021
A handful of former aides to Biden Cabinet members have picked up new lobbying businesses in recent weeks as their former bosses approached or secured Senate confirmation, records show.
Why it matters: New presidential administrations mean a new crop of Washington professionals who have the personal relationships to navigate and influence high-level policymaking. That can be lucrative for the firms employing them, and corporate clients looking for an edge in D.C.
What's new: On Tuesday, within days of Xavier Becerra's confirmation as secretary of Health and Human Services, lobbying firm Ferox Strategies announced it had hired his former chief of staff.
- Debra Dixon, who led Becerra's House office, registered to represent three new clients for the firm, including pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.
- "I do maintain a good relationship with my old boss and we continue to share the same values in terms of health equity, good policy and making sure the American dream is accessible to everyone," Dixon told Axios in an email. "I certainly look forward to working with him on those issues over the next four years on behalf of my clients and beyond."
She wasn't the only former aide to a Biden Cabinet official to bring on new lobbying business since last month.
- Eulice Brandon Garrett, a former legislative director for Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, registered to represent the Managed Funds Association, a trade group for the hedge fund industry.
- Yvesner Zamar, a former senior legislative aide to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, will lobby for Hilcorp Energy, an oil and gas exploration firm that does extensive business on federal lands.
- Karla Thieman, who was Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's chief of staff when he led the same agency under President Obama, is working with two new clients: the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance and the agriculture firm Alltech.
The bottom line: All of those policy professionals have extensive experience beyond their work with the officials now serving in the Cabinet.
- But the expertise and connections that come with that work can be a potent draw for clients looking for insight into the new administration.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.