A lobbying frenzy is set to begin as lawmakers prepare to end shutdown. Above, Sen, Jeff Merkley (D-Ore,) runs to vote on funding measure at the Capitol on Nov. 10.

Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg

Lobbyists are gearing up for a whirlwind end-of-year legislative sprint with the government set to reopen.

House members return to vote today for the first time in nearly two months on a deal (H.R. 5371, BGOV Bill Analysis) to fund some departments and Congress through Sept. 30 and the rest of the government through Jan. 30.

Look for lots of hearings to make up for lost time.

And get ready to set the political fundraising spigot to firehose level, especially the far-flung trips that tons of lawmakers dodged, for the sake of appearances, during the shutdown.

This is what’s driving the K Street agenda:

• Health care fights, including the flashpoint over Obamacare credits central to the Democrats’ shutdown messaging
• Appropriations (is another shutdown on the horizon?)
• Defense authorization
• Plus: cryptocurrency, housing, transportation legislation, and maybe reconciliation 2.0

“We expect a flurry of legislative activity between now and the first of the year,” said Loren Monroe, a BGR Group principal.

Furloughed federal workers will be back at their desks, rebooting some of the many canceled meetings with industry representatives.

• “Federal agencies, they’re going to have to start clearing the decks,” said David Schwietert, a lobbyist with the firm Akin and former aide to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).

Lobbyists didn’t stop for the shutdown, of course.

Andrew Tabler, a K&L Gates lobbyist with a focus on defense policy, said Hill staffers have “been moving swiftly” all through the shutdown on the defense measure.

Business and industry groups also called for an end to the shutdown, with the airline lobby playing a leading role in the push.

Squire Patton Boggs lobbyist Dave Schnittger, who emailed in from a plane returning from a weekend fundraiser where the lawmaker of honor did not attend, said the shutdown pushed the timeline for early work on a surface transportation bill for next year. That measure will serve as a vehicle for transportation and infrastructure priorities.

See you in the Sunshine State: “You had members who were reluctant to fundraise during the shtudown, while others continued,” said GOP lobbyist Ozzie Palomo.

• “You’re going to see a migratory shift of fundraisers down to Florida, particularly the Palm Beach area.” That’s for close proximity to the Winter White House at Mar-a-Lago.

A promised vote on Affordable Care Act premium credits likely will push a number of priorities, including a second reconciliation package that Republicans want to do, into next year. “You’re up against the clock on that,” Palomo said.

Appropriations wrangling will be top of mind, as lobbyists vie for earmarks and contracts and monitor the odds of another shutdown.

“Appropriations, appropriations, appropriations, where the money is going and how that’s going to shape up for business, particularly federal contracting opportunities, I’m watching that very closely,” said Democratic lobbyist Tonya Saunders, who represents smaller contractors.

Mike Williams, who runs the Williams Group, said he’d bet Jeff Bezos’ dough (though not his own) that Congress could be headed for another partial shutdown, or a long-term stopgap.

With Hill aides going without pay during the longest shutdown ever, some on K Street said it could spark a revolving-door crunch.

• “I personally worry about the brain drain if some staff decide they have had enough and move off Capitol Hill,” said BGR’s Monroe.

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.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been one of her party’s best fundraisers.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who rose up the leadership ranks with a prodigious fundraising operation that drew on her home state’s big donors and K Street lobbyists, holds more than $10 million in her political coffers as she prepares to exit Capitol Hill.

The first woman to serve as House Speaker had $8.8 million in her leadership PAC to the Future political action committee as of Sept. 30, federal campaign reports show. She had $1.5 million in her re-election fund as of that date, according to recent Federal Election Commission filings.

• “She was the best fundraiser in the Congress in my career,” said Democratic lobbyist and donor Steve Elmendorf, a founder of the firm Avoq. “She started out as a fundraiser so she understood how it worked.”

As the top Democrat in the House, she held a regular fundraising retreat for donors from around the country in her state’s Napa Valley wine region dotted with vineyards that produce some of the US’s best-known vintages.

Plus: Rich Donors Bankroll Redistricting Fights Ahead of 2026 Elections

Pelosi’s imprint on Washington lobbying is primed to last beyond her exit from Capitol Hill with scores of ex-aides and allies in high-level K Street and advocacy jobs.

Working for or up close to the California Democrat, who’s logged decades in Congress and was the first woman House Speaker, offered a masterclass in political dealmaking, arm twisting, vote counting, and fundraising, said Pelosi alumni and advisers.

Her former hires, from chiefs of staff to interns, have moved through the revolving door to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, AirBnB Inc. , McDonald’s Corp ., S-3 Group and others.

“The Pelosi alumni network is very strong,” said former aide Anne MacMillan, now chief strategy officer at Invariant. “It is a family and a community. There’s a bond between all of us that she started but will extend well beyond her time in Congress.” Read More

Matt Bravo, the S-3 Group’s newly minted managing partner, intends to keep growing the lobbying, communications, and digital shop, including with a focus on tech, energy, and AI work, he said in an interview with Power Play.

“I really do think energy and tech and AI are all colliding at this point in data centers,” said Bravo, who joined the firm seven years ago from the office of then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). Scalise is now House Majority Leader, the No. 2 position in House GOP leadership.

S-3 has already posted its biggest revenue year yet in 2025, even before the fourth quarter, as disclosed in federal filing under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. S-3 Group, a year ago, acquired another firm, West Front Strategies.

• Google, Boeing Co., Duke Energy Corp., Meta Platforms Inc., National Football League, and the American Petroleum Institute are among the firm’s disclosed lobbying clients.

Firm founders John Scofield and Mike Ference remain at the shop.

• “John and Mike built an absolute powerhouse,” Bravo said.

Scalise called Bravo a “trusted advisor and critical team player” in a news release from S-3 announcing the new role.

Cornell University has spent a record amount on lobbying so far this year.

(Photo by Matt Burkhartt/Getty Images)

Cornell University has already spent more on lobbying this year, with more than $900,000 through the third quarter, than it ever had before.

The ivy league school tapped Miller Strategies, the firm of GOP lobbyist Jeff Miller, earlier this year, as first reported by Bloomberg Government. Miller Strategies disclosed earning $220,000 from Cornell so far this year and lobbied the US House and Senate, plus the Executive Office of the President, according to disclosures.

The university said last week it reached an agreement with the White House to restore about $250 million in federal funding, Bloomberg’s Liam Knox and Greg Ryan report.

Cornell agreed to spend $30 million over three years in agricultural research and pay another $30 million to the US related to ending pending claims brought against the school.

Smaller lobby firms worried that growth may cause them to lose their “special sauce” should hire team players, divide responsibility, and empower their leaders, writes C. Stewart Verdery Jr. in BGOV’s latest Lobbying Insight column.

Verdery founded Monument Advocacy as a one-person shop in 2006.

Advocacy means a lot more than lobbying, he writes:

• “I tend to think of the actual lobbying part of our work as the tip of an iceberg that sticks out of the water—significant and visible, but not nearly as large as the submerged mass of work that it takes to build a case for action.” Read More

Even as Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. agreed to cut some of their fees to merchants, don’t expect a detente in the long-running, mulitmillion-dollar lobbying fight between banks and retailers over the credit card fees.

A Visa and Mastercard settlement deal, which stems from a two-decade court fight, still needs court approval. If approved, it would make it one of the largest-ever class-action settlements of a US antitrust case, report Bloomberg’s Paige Smith and Jennifer Surane.

Doug Kantor, an executive committee member of the Merchants Payments Coalition, which has been fighting the banks and credit card companies over the issue, said he expects “a lot of opposition” to the proposed settlement and says it could be rejected.

• The lobbying will continue, he said: “If anything this shows an even greater need for legislation and demonstrates the courts are just not equipped to set out how a competitive market could happen in the future.”

The Electronic Payments Coalition, which is on the other side of the issue, said in a statement from its executive chairman Richard Hunt that the proposed settlement came together after both sides “worked in good faith.”

With the agreement, Hunt said, “lobbyists for corporate mega-stores and a few politicians can end their misguided crusade – at both the federal and state levels – to undermine our safe, secure, and efficient payment systems through untested government mandates.”

Spotify, the music streaming company, is looking for a lobbyist in Washington.

(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Spotify wants to upload a new lobbyist in DC.

• The digital streaming service for music and podcasts is hiring a director of US government affairs with a base salary between $226,676 and $323,823.

The company spent $1.2 million on federal lobbying so far this year, according to lobbying disclosures through the third quarter.

The job description calls for regular engagement with the executive branch, members of Congress and key congressional committees, according to a posting. The ideal candidate has a “propensity for thinking strategically and a track record of achieving results,” among other skills.