After an administrative gap year, Mike Catanzaro has returned to K Street from the White House. Special assistant to the president for domestic energy and environmental policy since February 2017, the presidential aide will head back to his earlier corporate home at the CGCN lobbying group.
Those lobbyists, no doubt, will welcome back Catanzaro with a fatter paycheck and better perks. His time with Trump makes him invaluable to industry. Just ask Larry Kudlow.
“In just a short time on the job, I realized Mike was an integral member of the NEC team and played an important role in crafting domestic energy and environmental policy,” the NEC director and Trump economic adviser said in an official statement that will soon double as an endorsement.
“His expertise and dedication to the Trump Administration’s energy independence priorities was greatly valued and he will be missed,” Kudlow continued. “We thank him for his leadership and we wish him well on his future endeavors.”
Perhaps Kudlow is earnest, and it is certainly true Catanzaro did good deregulatory work, but the message to industry is unfortunate and unavoidable: This guy is our guy. Hire him immediately.
The firm added additional glaze in a statement by noting that their new hire would “observe all ethics requirements applicable to Catanzaro as a former White House employee.” What are those requirements? The aide can’t lobby his former colleagues at his old agency for five years, and he can never lobby on behalf of a foreign government.
But those lobbying restrictions are thin. Although Catanzaro won’t be lobbying the National Economic Council directly, he can advise clients on its machinations and coach his fellow lobbyists on how to win influence there.
Catanzaro has spun through the revolving door before, gaining momentum then springing into lobbying. He worked in Congress with former Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and then at the White House with President George W. Bush before cashing out as a lobbyist the first time. As EE News notes, that experience earned him plenty of clients — Petrochemical Manufacturers and General Motors Co. chief among them.
After a second stint in the White House, Catanzaro will level up again. Influence increases with each revolution of the door.
