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The office of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) is engaging with top lobbying firms amid the government shutdown to maintain a direct line of communication between the business industry and House Republican leadership, as first reported by Bloomberg Government. By the time the Majority Whip office’s “roadshow” is finished, they will have met with more than 500 people from nearly two dozen multi-client consulting firms.

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House GOP Whip Team Goes on a Lobby Roadshow During Shutdown

Bloomberg Government

Kate Ackley

November 5, 2025

The House GOP whip team is making house calls to top lobbying firms during the government shutdown in an effort to strengthen ties between lawmakers and corporate interests with high stakes in legislation.

Senior aides to House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) have held 14 meetings at K Street shops during the shutdown with more on the books this week, said Robert Boland, chief of staff, and Annie Brody, director of coalitions, a liaison with the business community, in an interview with Bloomberg Government, their first to discuss the project.

The rare move to take their meetings on the road has offered a collection of plugged-in lobbyists an opportunity to probe the latest thinking from House Republican leadership and to get their clients in the room to share concerns about the shutdown. Lobbyists who attended the meetings said the sessions helped clients who are navigating a particularly volatile Washington with the longest ever government shutdown and a log-jam of legislation.

It’s also a way for the House Republican leadership aides to try to bolster ties to the nation’s business community heading into year-end policy fights as well as the 2026 midterm election year.

“It’s been a good opportunity to hear what they’re hearing and take that back with us,” Boland said.

He noted, too, that Capitol Hill will have a long to-do list when the government re-opens.

Emmer’s operation has hit some of the top K Street firms: Akin, BGR Group, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Harbinger Strategies, Mehlman Consulting, S-3 Group, among them, according to lobbyists and the whip staffers. Nippon Steel Corp., Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Google, Palantir Technologies Inc., and Goldman Sachs Group are clients of the firms, lobbying disclosures show.

By week’s end, the whip staffers project they will have held 19 meetings at lobbying firms in Washington.

A spokesperson for House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) did not respond to requests for comment. Democratic lawmakers have criticized House Republicans for not being in session during the shutdown. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has kept House Republicans away after they voted Sept. 19 for a stopgap measure, which has failed in the Senate.

In the Room

Caitlin Canter, a senior vice president at Avoq and former Republican congressional aide, said her firm hosted a session with the GOP whip staffers this week and invited clients.

“The value in it is being able to get our clients in a room during a time when there is a lot of uncertainty about how the shutdown ends,” Canter said. “It’s refreshing to have clients hear directly from them.”

Lobbyists and the Hill aides said the meetings were open to clients with ties to either political party, not just Republicans.

Corporate and trade association representatives have used the sessions to describe ways the shutdown may put their business operations at risk.

“They’re telling us how the shutdown is affecting their industries,” Boland said.

Many of the same questions pop up across K Street firms, including when the shutdown might end.

“We get that a lot,” Boland said.

Boland said it’s the first time the team has taken its coalitions effort on the road to K Street but hasn’t decided whether the jaunts to lobbying firms will continue post-shutdown.

Open Doors

Brody, who took over the coalitions role earlier this year, said the whip team keeps an open-door policy and is receptive to hearing from business groups and industry lobbyists.

“We want to be a resource,” Brody said. “It’s been a great way to have outreach.”

Boland said their boss Emmer puts a premium on communication.

Republican lobbyist Sam Olswanger, a senior policy advisor at the firm Akin, said Boland and Brody spoke with a group of about 30 lobbyists and client representatives during a roundtable the firm hosted at its office last week.

He said clients across industries have had a lot of questions about the shutdown and appreciated hearing directly from senior House leadership staff.

Ozzie Palomo, a founding partner at Chartwell Strategy Group, said his firm hosted about 20 people, including a handful online, recently for Boland and Brody’s appearance. He said it made for a collaborative session.

“We have a pretty diverse array of clients from multinational corporations to small nonprofits in Boston,” Palomo said. “There was a commonality of questions: How does this end? What does the rest of the schedule look like?”