Lobbying

Regulators are investigating a tip about government action that coincided with a surge in healthcare stocks.

Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) has hired a new senior executive and has promoted another.

Keith Styles has joined the group as executive vice president, chief operating officer and general counsel. Before coming to the group, Styles was Catholic Charities USA’s outside legal counsel at Arent Fox.

“We are thrilled to have Keith join our internal team and expand upon his work with us. He is well-versed in our goals and vision and his deep management legal experience will be valuable assets to CCUSA and the people we serve,” said Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, in a statement.

A top Obama administration official who has helped implement the president’s healthcare reform law is joining a lobby firm.

Yvette Fontenot will join Avenue Solutions as a partner. The firm is a boutique Democratic lobby shop with a specialty in healthcare, representing some of the country’s biggest insurers and healthcare providers.

A leading retail group is backing congressional Republican efforts to repeal key provision in President Obama's healthcare law that requires most employers provide benefits to their workers. 

The National Retail Federation (NRF) wrote two letters this week to House and Senate sponsors supporting their recently introduced legislation saying the repeal will "greatly aid the retail community, which is heavily dependent on labor," wrote David French, NRF's senior vice president. 

"One of every four jobs in the American economy is supported by retail, which would be jeopardized by the mandate effective in 2014," French wrote. 

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The Livestrong Foundation is bringing on a new director of government relations, the group announced late Thursday.

The appointment of Cameron Krier, who was once a Senate healthcare staffer, comes at a challenging time for the Livestrong brand.

The cancer group was founded by cyclist Lance Armstrong, who, while no longer directly involved in the organization, helped raise its profile as a major charity. 

Pharmaceutical giant Amgen has adjusted its lobbying force after scoring a windfall from the “fiscal cliff” deal.

Amgen has cut ties with one firm that lobbied for the company on drug reimbursement issues, according to federal disclosure records, and followed another lobbyist who worked on the issue to his new firm.

The changes to Amgen’s K Street roster are taking place after the company scored big with a provision in the fiscal-cliff bill that delayed Medicare price controls for a class of drugs that included one of the company’s products.

That provision, which was publicized by financial analysts after the fiscal-cliff bill became law, has sparked outrage on Capitol Hill and drawn repeal bills from several lawmakers.

A coalition of unions is launching a new round of television ads on Friday pressuring centrist lawmakers to oppose entitlement cuts in a “fiscal cliff” deal. 

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the National Education Association (NEA) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are sponsoring television ads that ask lawmakers not to cut Medicare and Medicaid benefits. 

The television ads are a six-figure buy and will run for about a week starting Friday. They will target Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Reps. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) and Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio). Warner is up for reelection in 2014.

Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) is heading to K Street.

Altmire, who lost a primary battle against Rep. Mark Critz (D-Pa.) earlier this year, is joining Florida Blue, the state’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield company. Altmire will be the company’s senior vice president of public policy, government and community affairs. Critz lost in the general election to Republican Keith Rothfus.

Altmire said he was happy to have the chance to work on healthcare policy. 

“During the past six years, I have worked to represent every constituent in our diverse district and give western Pennsylvania a voice in Washington. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to serve the district and I am proud of the work that we did together,” Altmire said in a statement. “Now that the time has come to move on to the next phase of my life, I am delighted to return to my career roots in healthcare policy and community affairs.”

When Mark Parkinson left the governor’s mansion in Kansas, he figured he would go back to a successful business career operating nursing homes.

Sen. Susan Collins raised concerns in May about a CDC grant program and questioned whether it funded political activism.