Job Security for Lobbyists

The legislation would allow federal funds for Indian education programs to be used for teaching and restoring native languages. The measure has been approved by the House and is pending in the Senate.

The code talkers received Congressional Gold Medals in 2001. Serving in the military during World War II, their coded messages based on the Navajo language, could not be broken by the Japanese. The three code talkers who tried their hand at lobbying were Samuel Tso, Keith Little and Merril Sandoval.

"I'm afraid we're going to lose our culture," Tso said in an interview yesterday. "Everything we do in our ceremony takes the language to carry it out." Tso, 84, said that he was punished in school for speaking his native language.

Whether he was successful persuading senators to support the legislation, he doesn't know. "It's hard to tell whether I carry a big weight or not," Tso said.

Among the supporters of the measure: the National Indian Education Association, the National Congress of American Indians and the National Indian Gaming Association.

The Colonel's New Front

Greenberg Traurig has snagged another military name, this time, Christopher E. Romig, former senior policy officer for the Iraq-Afghanistan Joint Transition Planning Group and special assistant to the military deputy for budget at the Pentagon. A retired Army colonel, he'll be lobbying on defense issues and appropriations, of course.

Also at Greenberg Traurig: Joe R. Reeder, undersecretary of the Army from 1993 to 1997, and Joseph Corrigan, who also worked congressional liaison for the Army .

Here and There

Moving about town . . . Suzanne Clark, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is leaving for the National Journal Group, where she'll be president, a role being relinquished by chief executive John Fox Sullivan. The group includes the National Journal, the Atlantic and Hotline. Replacing her at the chamber will be David Chavern, now chief legal officer.

Mary McManus, a lawyer at the Federal Communications Commission, has signed with cable giant Comcast Corp. as senior director for the FCC and regulatory policy and serve as a senior lobbyist.

Lisa Graves, formerly senior counsel for legislative strategy at the American Civil Liberties Union, has joined the Center for National Security Studies as deputy director. She'll be involved in legislative advocacy on surveillance and other civil liberties.