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Ballard Partners has added United Airlines to its client roster for aviation policy matters.
Brian Ballard, a top Trump fundraiser, leads the lobbying team that includes Dan McFaul, who was chief of staff to Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz; and Patrick Kilcur, who was executive VP-US government affairs at the Motion Picture Assn.
United’s trade group, Airlines for America, has been pushing Congress for emergency funding to handle the shortage of air traffic controllers, and the Federal Aviation Administration's outdated computer technology.
"I hope this Congress and this Administration will agree that it’s not acceptable to just continue to tolerate a chronically understaffed system," AFA president Nick Calio told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee on March 4. “Just like it’s not acceptable for controllers and technicians to have to work with paper strips and floppy disks."
United spent $3.4M for federal lobbying during the past year.
That outlay was spread out among Duberstein Group ($320K), Cornerstone Government Affairs ($200K), Mehlman Consulting ($200K) and Alignment Government Strategies ($120K).
Ballard Partners has signed to a represent the US unit of Rheinmetall, Germany’s biggest defense contractor, on Army procurement issues.
BGR Group signs on to provide lobbying and PR services for Terzo, an AI financial intelligence platform. Douglas Lute, chair of BGR’s international and defense practices, will join Terzo’s board of directors.
Avoq has landed Palantir Technologies, the controversial surveillance company founded by right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, as a client.
Anne Kierig, who was senior manager of public policy at Amazon, has joined the American Advertising Federation as VP-government affairs. She takes over for Clark Rector, who is retiring after a 37-year run at AAF.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, which was established in compliance with the executive order signed by President Trump, has hired Valcour LLC, which has close ties with his administration.
