Army soldiers prepare to load military tanks onto trains en route to Washington D.C., from Fort Cavazos n Killeen, Texas for the 250th anniversary June Military Parade.

(Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

The military tanks set to parade through Washington this weekend offer a backdrop for the defense industry’s frenetic lobbying efforts.

The sector is dealing with funding uncertainty, delays of pivotal bills in Congress, proposed changes to Pentagon procurement, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s grilling on Capitol Hill much of the week.

“Tensions have never been higher within the defense community, with uncertainty on the budget, uncertainty on priorities and uncertainty on the future of existing programs,” said longtime industry lobbyist Jeff Green, founder of J.A. Green and Company. “We’ve never had essentially three budgets in play at the same time.”

In the first quarter of this year, the top five defense contractors spent $16.8 million on lobbying.

The defense sector is in a wait-and-see mode. Congress is still sorting out fiscal 2025 and 2026 spending and has also delayed work on the fiscal 2026 defense authorization. At the same time, K Street is trying to game out the end result of a massive tax and spending plan that GOP leaders are now hashing out.

Hegseth said DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, found $6 billion in defense cuts, reports BGOV’s Roxana Tiron. She also reported that House Republicans are proposing a $831.5 billion budget for the Pentagon in fiscal 2026 with increased spending for the next-generation fighter aircraft and President Donald Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense shield. And Tiron and Jack Capaccio report the Air Force has cut in half its request to Congress for F-35 fighter jets.

The Pentagon’s biggest contractors are facing uncertainty in defense procurement patterns, according to data analysis by BGOV’s Paul Murphy.

A series of contract pauses, reviews, consolidations, and cancellations since the start of the Trump administration has vendors on edge. Additionally, restrictions on starting contracts while the federal government operates under stopgap funding makes it unclear when new big-ticket projects might ramp up.

Defense Department unclassified contract spending with its top five vendors dropped 55% from the first week of the Trump administration to the third week. The dollar amounts started to tick back up through February and into March.

Lawmakers are eyeing changes to Pentagon purchasing policy.

“Acquisition reform is a major focus,” said lobbyist Brandt Anderson, a senior policy adviser at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

Industry lobbyists are also bracing for yet another possible stop-gap funding measure after Sept. 30 and some are worried about delays to the National Defense Authorization Act.

“The good news is, both Armed Services committees know how to get the NDAA done,“ Anderson said. “I fully expect that, despite the delayed start, the NDAA will get over the finish line.”

Welcome to the latest edition of Power Play, Bloomberg Government’s newsletter on the lobbying, money, and people moving Capitol Hill’s agenda from the outside.

Reach out with tips, news, complaints, and most importantly all your exclusives: kackley@bloombergindustry.com.

Uber has set up a federal political action committee.

(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

It’s like Uber for fundraising.

The ride-sharing app Uber Technologies Inc. launched a new federal political action committee, Bloomberg Government’s Greg Giroux spotted in federal election filings.

Javier Correoso, a registered federal in-house lobbyist for the company, is listed as the PAC’s treasurer, according to the documents.

“We’re launching Uber PAC to support candidates who understand our business and the ways that policies and regulations—in areas like autonomous vehicles, insurance, and flexible work—can impact the millions who use Uber every day,” Uber said in a statement to Power Play.

It won’t be Uber’s first foray into campaign finance. It’s a regular funder in local races. In late April, Uber gave $2.5 million to an independent expenditure committee, Uber NY PAC, that’s been spending in support of some New York City Council candidates in this year’s election.

Lobbyists usually run in herds at bipartisan firms, but a slice of K Street takes a lone-wolf approach to the influence game.

Those who opt to go it alone say it makes for a leaner, more nimble operation, reduces potential client conflicts, and gives them control over how they operate the business. In good times, a single-lobbyist enterprise can rake in big money that the rainmaker doesn’t have to share. But risks abound.

More than 50 solo shops reported revenue of $1 million or more last year, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis of federal lobbying disclosures, accounting for nearly $80 million in fees.

“We tend to be scrappy,” said Missy Edwards, who opened her shop, Missy Edwards Strategies, in 2010, and last year disclosed $1.3 million in fees from Truckload Carriers Association, Shein Technology, and other clients.

Edwards said she left a bipartisan firm for the more entrepreneurial approach of owning her company. With ties to Senate Republicans, she said, business has been stable over time, with the pace this year more relentless as clients work to influence tax, tariff, and other debates.

Other one-person shops, like Ricchetti Inc., have seen business fall off.

The firm, run by Jeff Ricchetti, brother of Biden White House insider Steve Ricchetti, hauled in $2.4 million in federal lobbying income last year making it one of the top solo shops with Amazon.com and General Motors on the client roster.

Solo lobbying firms are more vulnerable to the whims of elections, and often rise or fall on which policy fights are hot at the moment. The presidential transition and flip in control of the Senate can ripple into K Street bottom lines, with one-person firms especially susceptible.

For some lone lobbyists, it’s a long-term business plan, while others use it as a temporary gig or a launching pad to build a larger firm.

Arshi Siddiqui, once an aide to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said she went outside her “comfort zone” to launch Bellwether Government Affairs late last year. She registered her first federal clients in March, including Cigna Group and Comcast Corp., lobbying disclosures show.

On the other side of the aisle, Scott Raab, who spent years working as the top policy aide to then-Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who isn’t running for re-election. Raab said his goal is to build up his practice with six to eight clients.

“I would like to stay solo,” Raab said. “It’s easy to say with a Republican Senate, House, and White House.” Read More

First in Power Play: Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck is bolstering its roster of lobbyists with experience working in the Trump administration. The bipartisan firm is the largest federal lobbying practice in Washington based on lobbying disclosure act revenue.

Matt Grinney, recently an in-house lobbyist at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, is joining Brownstein as a policy director in the firm’s Washington office. He previously worked at the Federal Housing Finance Agency during the first Trump administration and worked on Capitol Hill for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). He’ll focus on the financial services industry.

As managing director at SIFMA, Grinney represented broker-dealers, investment banks, and asset managers before Congress and the executive branch on financial and tax policy.

“Matt is a well-respected and well-connected financial services policy strategist,” said Will Moschella, who co-chair Brownstein’s government relations department.

Maxwell Huntley, who served as director for defense policy and strategy on the Trump White House’s National Security Council, is returning to Brownstein as senior policy adviser.

Huntley previously worked for Armed Services Committee members and was national security adviser to Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). He’s been registered to lobby for Honeywell Inc., Palantir Technologies Inc., and BAE Systems Inc., according to lobbying disclosures.

Checkmate Government Relations, a fast-growing firm with ties to the Trump administration and Capitol Hill Republicans, signed on a batch of new clients this week, according to lobbying disclosures. Those clients include:

• Coquille Indian Tribe
• Earth AI Inc.
• Hanesbrand Inc.
• SWR International Inc.
• T1 Energy Inc.

The shop’s lobbyists include managing partner Charles “Ches” McDowell and Chris LaCivita Jr., son of the Trump 2024 campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita.

Tholos Government Relations, launched earlier this year by GOP lobbyist Aleix Jarvis, has signed on new clients recently:

• The Tibet Fund
• Delta Air Lines
• Medforth Group

Jarvis, a longtime lobbyist who previously worked for Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and the firm’s Michael Williams will lobby on aviation and air safety matters for Delta and on issues “regarding the treatment of Tibetan people” for the Tibet Fund, according to new lobbying filings.

A controversial provision in the House-passed tax and spending package that would ban states from regulating artificial intelligence over the next decade is likely headed toward the chopping block after intense lobbying, reports BGOV’s Oma Seddiq.

Myriad opponents—state lawmakers, civil rights advocates, technology safety groups—are lobbying against its inclusion in the legislation. They argue the measure would expose more Americans to risks posed by AI and amounts to federal overreach. States have enacted several new AI-related laws, for example, to crack down on deepfakes in political ads and pornography, in lieu of federal regulation.

Pro-business and tech groups, like the US Chamber of Commerce, are lobbying in favor of the provision, claiming a patchwork of state regulations is detrimental to the booming industry, especially for small entrepreneurs breaking into the market.

The Senate is currently reviewing the language yet Republican critics, Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), have emerged. The provision is likely to be challenged. The House may also backtrack after some members, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), voiced concerns.

After another chapter in the long-running lobbying fight over legislation to limit credit card fees, it looks like a win for banks over the retail industry.

Senators appear unlikely to hitch the bill to a cryptocurrency measure, after intense lobbying by both sides of the issue. Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are the chief sponsors of the bill would limit credit card processing fees, .

But the fight isn’t likely to end.

“We’re not giving up,” said Doug Kantor, an executive committee member of the Merchants Payments Coalition, whose members include the National Restaurant Association, the National Retail Federation and the National Grocers Association. “If we don’t get a vote here, there will be other opportunities we will pursue.”

The legislation would “open the door to fraud, hamper rewards programs, and limit the allocation of credit to individuals and small businesses,” according to the Bank Policy Institute, whose members include banks and other financial institutions.

The Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP gay-rights organization, did not participate in the World Pride parade over the weekend in Washington D.C. but has celebrated some of its own members who have gone into the Trump administration, said the group’s executive director Ed Williams.

“Basically, if you don’t think you need to protest or resist the Trump administration, then Pride isn’t for you,” said Williams.

The Log Cabin Republicans did not participate in World Pride parade held in Washington D.C. last weekend.

Photo by Bennett Roth

Williams’ predecessor, Charles Moran, went into the Trump administration as did about 35 of its board members, Williams said. Other openly gay administration officials include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Rick Grenell, whom President Trump appointed to head the Kennedy Center.