Transportation lobbying is a complicated universe, in which multi-issue
environmental groups can be as active as organizations that exist only
to influence infrastructure decision-making.
But to shed some more light on a cast of characters that Streetsblog Capitol Hill began introducing last month,
it's worth exploring who represents Washington's two largest
transportation players and how much those groups have spent this year.
![aashto.jpg](http://usa.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/aashto.jpg)
The American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials, or AASHTO,
is the road lobby's leading voice, reporting more than $53 million in
annual revenue on its most recent publicly available Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) filing.
With a membership of state-level
public officials, AASHTO does not employ in-house lobbyists but
contracts out with several firms, spending $270,000 in the first half
of this year, according to congressional disclosures.
AASHTO's team includes Jack Schenendorf
of Covington & Burling, a former chief of staff on the House
transportation committee who advised the Bush administration's DOT
transition team in 2001, and Brett Thompson of the International
Government Relations Group, a firm run by his former boss, ex-Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO).
The other lobbyists reporting work for AASHTO this year are William Malley
of Perkins Coie, whose experience lies in environmental review of
infrastructure projects, and Kathy Ruffalo-Farnsworth, a veteran
staffer for members of both parties who helped craft the 2005 federal transportation bill before Congress appointed her to serve on a high-profile commission that examined the system's financing challenges.
![APTA_colour_logo.gif](http://usa.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/APTA_colour_logo.gif)
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA),
which represents local transit agencies as well as companies involved
in transit networks, reported $21 million in annual revenue in its most
recent IRS filing.
APTA spent $720,000 on in-house
lobbying during the first half of this year, according to its
congressional disclosures -- more than double the amount AASHTO spent
on outside consultants.
APTA also reported one outside contract with Ruffalo-Farnsworth and another with Clyburn Consulting, a firm
led by William Clyburn Jr., former vice chairman of the national
Surface Transportation Board and the cousin of House Majority Whip
James Clyburn (D-SC).