New Policy Director For House Speaker Mike Johnson Is Pharma Lobbyist, DeSantis Donor

According to multiple reports, House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) hired a pharma lobbyist as his policy director.

Johnson tabbed Dan Ziegler for the role.

Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson noted Ziegler’s extensive Big Pharma ties.

"Reports indicate that Dan Ziegler, a Washington lobbyist counting among his clients PhRMA, Pfizer, Merck, Sanofi, Eli Lilly and Amgen, will join House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office as policy director."
–from Public Citizen

— Sharyl Attkisson 🕵️‍♂️💼🥋 (@SharylAttkisson) November 1, 2023

POLITICO writes:

Dan Ziegler is heading back to the Hill to rejoin his old boss Mike Johnson in the new House speaker’s office as his policy director, our Olivia Beavers reports. Ziegler was previously executive director of the conservative Republican Study Committee that Johnson chaired from 2019 to 2021, and he left the Hill in December to join Williams and Jensen as a principal.

— At the time, Johnson and two other current or former RSC leaders praised Ziegler as a trusted aide and lamented his departure in comments provided by the firm. Multiple lobbyists told PI last week that Ziegler remained one of Johnson’s closest allies on K Street.

— The Heritage Action and American Energy Alliance alum now lobbies for a range of health care clients, including Pfizer, Merck, Sanofi, Owens & Minor, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, PhRMA, Amgen and Elevance Health, in addition to companies like Visa, Vanguard Group, Bloom Energy and W Diamond Corporation.

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Axios also confirmed Ziegler’s hiring to Mike Johnson’s House Speaker office:

Speaker Mike Johnson has hired Dan Ziegler to be his policy director, Ziegler confirmed to Axios on Wednesday.

Ziegler has deep ties to the House GOP conference and has lobbied Congress on a huge slate of policy issues in recent years, including for pharmaceutical companies.

He staffed the Republican Study Committee when Johnson was the chair.

He later moved to Williams and Jensen, where he registered to lobby on behalf of large drugmakers including Novo

Nordisk, Sanofi, Pfizer, PhRMA, Eli Lilly and Amgen.

“It turns out that one of the biggest winners from the House Republican meltdown is Big Pharma. At a time when 90 percent of Americans are clamoring for more aggressive measures to clamp down on Big Pharma price gouging, the industry has managed to place one of their lobbyists as policy director in the Speaker’s office,” Public Citizen president Robert Weissman said in a statement.

From Public Citizen:

“Should the House fail to take up popular bipartisan drug pricing reforms that are anticipated to advance through the Senate, we will know a reason why, and know at least one person who likely is siding with industry to preserve drug corporation monopoly abuses and profiteering.

“This appointment puts to lie Speaker Johnson’s claim that he is a big believer in ‘free markets.’ He has just placed in charge of his policy shop a lobbyist for an industry whose business model is based on abusing monopoly power

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“Speaker Johnson’s hire of pharma lobbyist Dan Ziegler is yet another example of how the revolving door enables corporations to derail the policies that Americans overwhelmingly favor, and underscores the need for reform to address the revolving door.

“Ziegler’s resume disqualifies him for the job. Speaker Johnson immediately should reverse this hire and find a policy director free of Big Pharma or corporate conflicts.”

According to Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman, Ziegler donated to Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign.

No word yet on whether Ziegler will recuse himself from energy, financial services or health care policy. He was lobbying on those issues until this month.

Ziegler, Johnson's new policy director, is also a donor to @RonDeSantis's campaign. Johnson has not endorsed Trump yet. https://t.co/5GyuFIv4Wz

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 1, 2023

Investigative journalist Laura Loomer writes:

Newly selected FAKE MAGA Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is not a Trump ally! He is hiring @RonDeSantis donors as his staff!

This week, it was reported that Mike Johnson appointed Dan Ziegler as his policy director!

According to FEC records, I have discovered that Dan Ziegler donated $1,000 to @RonDeSantis’s Presidential campaign on June 21, 2023!

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Why would Mike Johnson hire DeSantis supporters/donors if he truly supported @realDonaldTrump? Makes me believe Mike Johnson is gearing up to work against President Trump ahead of 2024.

Like I said last week, Mike Johnson is bad news and he is 100% not MAGA. I tried to warn all of you.

EXCLUSIVE:

Newly selected FAKE MAGA Speaker of the House Mike Johnson @SpeakerJohnson is not a Trump ally! He is hiring @RonDeSantis donors as his staff!

This week, it was reported that Mike Johnson appointed Dan Ziegler @D_Ziegler as his policy director!

According to FEC… https://t.co/rc54Ruztyi pic.twitter.com/3XEafdnyk0

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 2, 2023

*Image from Laura Loomer X Post*

From Loomer:

Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that Ziegler made a $1,000 donation to Ron DeSantis for President in June 2023. There’s no public record of Ziegler donating to President Trump’s 2024 campaign. This assignment by Mike Johnson, plus his glowing accolades for Kevin McCarthy, cast doubt on Johnson’s status as an America First, MAGA Republican.

This is not the first time the two GOP operatives are working together. Ziegler was the executive director of the Republican Study Committee, while Johnson was its chair from 2019 to 2021. Since his time with the RSC ended, Ziegler has been busy as a lobbyist for Williams and Jensen with a long list of nefarious clients.