Metro has hired a top lobbying firm for $200,000 to represent the transit agency on Capitol Hill.
That’s on top of the more than $900,000 in salaries the agency pays to its nine-person, in-house, government relations staff, not including their employee benefits and other department expenses.
Still, Metro says the more than $1 million it spends to pay people to finesse its relationships with government is worth the cost, even as the agency is facing a tight budget squeeze with a projected $175 million shortfall next year in its $1.4 billion operating budget.
“If you look at the money they end up bringing in … it’s a bargain,” Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. “It more than pays for itself.”
Metro recently hired Van Scoyoc Associates, according to a lobbying registration form filed this week. Farbstein confirmed the firm was chosen after a competitive bidding process and will be paid $200,000 for a one-year contract, with up to four one-year extensions. She said the Washington firm costs about $28,000 less per year than the previous contract.
The transit agency has hired what it calls “government consulting firms” for at least the past decade to represent its interests on federal policy issues, such as winning $150 million in federal funding that was authorized last year, Farbstein said.
“It’s particularly important that we be represented on the Hill as hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake in capital funding via nationwide formula programs as the federal surface transportation bill is up for reauthorization,” she said.
The full-time Metro employees specialize in local issues for Maryland, the District and Virginia, she said. One newly hired person also focuses on homeland security. Seven of those employees make more than $100,000 a year, according to information the agency provided to The Examiner earlier this year.
“It’s critical to maintain good service for the jurisdictions,” Farbstein said.
Other transit agencies nationwide also hire lobbyists, Farbstein said. But Metro is in a unique position of straddling three political boundaries and shuttling a huge share of federal workers.
