Republican aides in Congress who were instrumental in writing the sweeping tax law last year are hitting the exits to take jobs in the lobbying industry.
At least a half dozen high-profile GOP staffers have departed or are departing Capitol Hill, swapping jobs in the legislative branch for plum postings at firms like Akin Gump and Squire Patton Boggs.
The exile from Congress includes top aides for the House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee, and the offices of Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).
Among the biggest departures is Mark Prater, who served as chief tax counsel and deputy staff director for Senate Finance Committee Republicans. Prater, who has not yet announced his next career move, worked for the committee for nearly 30 years.
Prater cited Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch’s (R-Utah) retirement, the culmination of the tax-reform process and his accumulation of years on Capitol Hill as reasons for his departure.
“It just seemed like a good breaking point and a chance to do something different,” he said.
Cashing in on K Street is a common move for congressional staffers in both parties, especially after major legislation is signed into law. Something similar happened after ObamaCare passed in 2010.
In the two years after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, more than 30 former administration officials, lawmakers and congressional staffers that had worked on the law joined the K Street ranks. The numbers have likely grown since then.
What ObamaCare was for Democrats, last year’s tax law was for Republicans — the culmination of decades of policy work, and for many, a career ambition fulfilled.
“It’s not unusual for staffers on the Hill, after they’ve worked on a major piece of legislation like tax reform, to then want to move on. In their minds, they’ve done and accomplished what they wanted to do and then they move on,” said Ivan Adler, a principal at The McCormick Group.
Brendan Dunn, who joined Akin Gump this month after spending more than five years in McConnell’s office, said some people stayed on Capitol Hill longer than they otherwise would have just for the chance to work on the tax bill.
There were “a lot of people who stayed for tax reform,” he said.
One of McConnell’s former chiefs of staff, Hunter Bates, co-leads Akin Gump’s lobby shop.
Experts in tax policy and financial services issues are always in high demand at lobbying firms. But with the GOP law setting in motion the biggest overhaul of the tax system in a generation, inside knowledge of how the law was drafted is especially prized.
