Ex-FEMA Official Aids New Orleans

By Judy Sarasohn
Thursday, June 29, 2006

Washington is a great place for second acts -- and third and fourth acts, too.

To wit: Daniel Craig was director of the Recovery Division at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and, while he may not have been in the Michael Brown category, he was one of the political appointees last year who came under criticism for lack of disaster-preparedness experience. Before FEMA, Craig worked for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

After leaving FEMA last year, Craig, who is not a lawyer, joined the D.C. office of Florida-based law firm Akerman Senterfitt and working with the firm's newly pulled-together Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Practice Group.

He's also leading the firm's team working for New Orleans, an agreement just inked to help the city's recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina. Along with lobbying the Hill on the city's needs, the Akerman team will advise New Orleans officials on hurricane preparedness for this season and on long-term recovery and reimbursement strategies.

Also on the team: Jim Schumann , former director of emergency preparedness and response at the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Legislative Affairs.

Richard Spees , managing partner of Akerman's D.C. office, noted that Craig is barred from lobbying his former colleagues at FEMA for a year under federal ethics rules; Schumann was not senior enough to be covered by the ban.

"It's an interesting practice, but it's one that's unfortunate," Spees said. "We can do a lot of good for people."

Craig was traveling and could not be reached for comment yesterday. He told Influence.biz last month that he's proud of his time at FEMA. He resigned from FEMA a week before Katrina hit, though Spees said he was asked to stay longer.

Spees acknowledges the questions that may be out there about Craig's time at FEMA, and says the firm talked about it when considering him. In the end, Spees said, the firm decided that Craig, knowing FEMA's ins and outs, would be "a real asset."

"He's a very talented guy," Spees said. "We'll have to see how it plays out."

Introducing the Fritts Group

Did anyone really believe the voluble Eddie Fritts would fade away after retiring last year as president of the National Association of Broadcasters?

Although his consulting contract with the NAB has expired, Fritts is up and about, lobbying the Hill and collecting clients.

He says he's now officially in business as the Fritts Group and has registered to lobby on behalf of such clients as CBS, Ion Media Networks and News Corp., as well as EarthLink, Vonage and GoDaddy.

Also on board at the shop are former NAB denizens Kathy Ramsey , John Lively and Lisa Keller .

Fritts says they're doing strategic counseling and "old-fashioned, shoe-leather lobbying."

Qorvis Hires AT&T Vet for 'Net Neutrality' Battle

Jim McGann , a 22-year veteran of AT&T, has joined Qorvis Communications as managing director, putting him in the middle of the public relations battles over the "net neutrality" legislative fight on Capitol Hill.

And it's an interesting place to be.

Qorvis represents It's Our Net, a coalition of Internet companies -- Google, eBay, Yahoo and others -- as well as the Christian Coalition and some liberal and consumer groups over access to new fiber-optic networks. They say telephone and cable companies should not be allowed to charge add-on fees to others for access to their networks. McGann is working with the coalition -- on the opposite side of his former employer.

AT&T Inc. and the other telephone and cable giants are fighting the Internet companies, which they say just don't want to contribute to infrastructure improvements.

McGann says he's not really switching sides. His last work for AT&T involved its government sales unit and did not deal with the net neutrality issue.

"I don't see it that way," McGann said when asked if he was switching sides. "It's been a while since I've been in the policy arena." He added that he has been impressed with the "groundswell of concern" about preserving access to the Internet.

Financial Associations Approve Meager

After negotiating the details for months, the boards of the Securities Industry Association and the Bond Market Association voted yesterday to merge. Still subject to a vote by their members next month, the new entity would be the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Here and There

Also on the move around town . . . Anthony W. Conway , a 34-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service and recently manager of government relations for the agency, has been named executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers.

Peter Filon , a Democratic counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he was responsible for cable, telephone, Internet and broadcasting issues, is going private sector. He's joining Comcast Corp. as senior director for federal government affairs, effective July 18.

Katherine Friess , a lobbyist at BKSH & Associates and earlier a tax and trade counsel to then-Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), has joined GAGE Business Consulting and Government Affairs.

Eron Shosteck , a former press secretary to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and more recently director of communications for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, has joined Strat@comm , a strategic communications shop.