Air Traffic Conroller's Union Takes Fight With FAA to Capitol Hill

Turbulence Ahead. The air traffic controller's union is taking its fight with the Federal Aviation Administration over a new contract to Capitol Hill this week. With talks stalled after nine months, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association is hoping to win support for a plan to strip the FAA of its trump card in negotiations.

Bills offered by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Rep. Sue Kelly (R-N.Y.) would force the agency into binding arbitration, since under current law the FAA can impose its final offer if Congress fails to intervene.

NATCA is deploying its heavy-hitting outside forces - including Cassidy & Associates, Fleishman-Hillard, Glover Park Group and Quinn Gillespie and Associates - to turbocharge a public relations and lobbying campaign.

After the FAA held a briefing last week for key Congressional aides, the union is readying its own briefings early this week for their staffers.

"This is no kind of bargaining that I'm used to, where one party has death-penalty rights," said NATCA President John Carr.

The group has already spent $2.6 million on a television advertising campaign. In addition to running on national cable news networks, the spots are airing in local markets of a handful of vulnerable Republican Senators, including Mike DeWine (Ohio), Rick Santorum (Pa.) and Jim Talent (Mo.).

Carr said "all options are on the table" for the union to commit even more money to the campaign.

The FAA, meanwhile, plans to continue its outreach campaign to educate lawmakers and staff on the issue, agency spokesman Geoff Basye said.

Prospects for enacting either of the bills could be bleak. While the House measure has 181 signatures, including respectable Republican support for a union-backed measure, GOP leaders in both chambers have signaled no willingness to buck a Bush administration agency on one of its key priorities. Thus, the air traffic controllers will push to get language designed to force the FAA back to the negotiating table added to the budget supplemental bill, said a source close to the process.

The air traffic controllers, of course, are no strangers to political controversy. Their 1981 strike made headlines when President Ronald Reagan fired the controllers and hired replacement workers. With those replacements now set to retire, the union says that reaching an agreement in time to keep some of them aboard is a critical safety need.

The FAA - which has won support for its position from the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board - argues the union is making an unreasonable grab for more taxpayer dollars.

In the Money. Campaign finance woes for Members can mean big money for their lawyers and accountants - and for

the campaigns of Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), the beneficiary is Republican insider Benjamin Ginsberg, a partner at the law and lobbying firm Patton Boggs.

The two have also turned to Robert Watkins & Co. for accounting counsel, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

A Patton Boggs spokesman confirmed that both are among Ginsberg's clients, but declined further comment.

In the first quarter of the year, Ginsberg picked up more than $50,000 from Martinez's campaign and is owed some $18,000 from Renzi's operation.

"These bills are related to a 2002 election matter which is expected to be resolved positively in the next few months," a Renzi aide said.

A spokesperson for the Martinez campaign could not be reached for comment.

Um, Scratch That ... It's become common knowledge that Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) - who along with his wife has been linked to the Jack Abramoff investigation - has a criminal attorney on retainer. He made a retainer payment to that lawyer, David Barger of Williams Mullen, on Jan. 27, according to recently disclosed campaign filings.

But back on Jan. 9, his spokeswoman Laura Blackann told Roll Call that her boss wasn't even interviewing potential lawyers, let alone hiring one.

Doolittle's top aide Richard Robinson said "her statement - I think that was probably accurate at the time."

Doolittle, he said, did a radio interview on Jan. 23 in which he discussed the Abramoff situation and wanted to run his statements by a lawyer. "The Congressman wanted to be as upfront and forthcoming as possible to the media and his constituents about the Abramoff investigation, so he retained a law firm to review any public statements in order to ensure everything he said was accurate and would not hinder the Justice Department's investigation," Robinson said.

Foreign Agent Files. GAGE International has trekked all the way to Nepal for a new client.

The firm has signed up Nepal's ministry of finance, according to filings with the Justice Department. GAGE, the filings say, will help Nepal with outreach to Congress and the White House "in a manner that emphasizes the anti-terrorism and free trade ... stance" of Nepal for a fee of $20,000 a month.

The lobby report adds that GAGE will "arrange for Members of Congress to travel to Nepal to see first hand the policies." (Coincidentally, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) had to cancel a visit to Nepal during the Easter recess due to ongoing unrest in the country.)

Meanwhile, Venable has added another foreign government client, the Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija, on "strategic tactical planning on foreign policy matters before the U.S. government," the lobbying registration said. Venable, according to the contract, will receive $600,000 for six months and $100,000 per month if the contract is extended beyond the initial six months.

The Federalist Group has signed the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago through another firm, Ainsley Gill and Associates, for $20,000 a month. "Federalist Group will advise Ainsley Gill & Associates and assist in the promotion of stronger US/Trinidadian ties, including meetings between officials," the filing said.

The Livingston Group, meanwhile, has filed a renewed contract to continue working for the embassy of Turkey until at least Feb. 28, 2007, for a total of $1.8 million.

However, the Livingston Group and the Embassy of Morocco have terminated their longstanding relationship. Last year, the Livingston Group earned $500,000, plus expenses, from the country, according to lobbying reports.

K Street Moves. The Society of the Plastics Industry will be molding two new lobbyists. Chris Brown, most recently with the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, is coming on as director of federal affairs and will lead the group's Congressional and White House advocacy programs. And Jane Adams, who spent 14 years with BASF Corp., will be director of state government affairs.

¥ The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America has added three people to its D.C. office. Dawson Hobbs, the new vice president of state affairs, joins the trade association from the National Rifle Association, where she was hunting policy manager and a state lobbyist. Joanne Moak comes aboard after posts practicing intellectual property law at Hogan & Hartson and Darby & Darby. In her new role, Moak will serve as assistant general counsel. And Kimberly Brock, most recently from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, will be the group's new communications manager.

¥ Porterfield and Lowenthal, a relatively new financial services-focused outfit launched by a pair of Van Scoyoc Associates alums, has made it first hire. Dawn Sears Callaghan, who worked with the name partners in their former posts, joins the team as vice president and counsel. She cut her teeth on Capitol Hill working as a legal fellow on the Senate Judiciary Committee under then-Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and as legislative counsel for Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.).

¥ Janet Flynn has left the Chlorine Chemistry Council, where she was senior director of public affairs, and landed at the Foundation for Biomedical Research as vice president of communications and development.

¥ Barry Holliday, a 33-year veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers, joins the Dredging Contractors of America as a new association executive, with a focus on government affairs.

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