Transportation lobbying is a complicated universe, in which multi-issue environmental groups can be as active as organizations that exist only to influence infrastructure decision-making.
But to shed some more light on a cast of characters that Streetsblog Capitol Hill began introducing last month, it's worth exploring who represents Washington's two largest transportation players and how much those groups have spent this year.
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The American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials, or AASHTO, is the road lobby's leading voice, reporting more than $53 million in annual revenue on its most recent publicly available Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filing.
With a membership of state-level public officials, AASHTO does not employ in-house lobbyists but contracts out with several firms, spending $270,000 in the first half of this year, according to congressional disclosures.
AASHTO's team includes Jack Schenendorf of Covington & Burling, a former chief of staff on the House transportation committee who advised the Bush administration's DOT transition team in 2001, and Brett Thompson of the International Government Relations Group, a firm run by his former boss, ex-Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO).
The other lobbyists reporting work for AASHTO this year are William Malley of Perkins Coie, whose experience lies in environmental review of infrastructure projects, and Kathy Ruffalo-Farnsworth, a veteran staffer for members of both parties who helped craft the 2005 federal transportation bill before Congress appointed her to serve on a high-profile commission that examined the system's financing challenges.
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The American Public Transportation Association (APTA), which represents local transit agencies as well as companies involved in transit networks, reported $21 million in annual revenue in its most recent IRS filing.
APTA spent $720,000 on in-house lobbying during the first half of this year, according to its congressional disclosures -- more than double the amount AASHTO spent on outside consultants.
APTA also reported one outside contract with Ruffalo-Farnsworth and another with Clyburn Consulting, a firm led by William Clyburn Jr., former vice chairman of the national Surface Transportation Board and the cousin of House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC).