NEW (AVIATION) BUSINESS: JetBlue Airways has added more lobbyists to defend its proposed merger with budget carrier Spirit Airlines. JetBlue retained Hollis Public Affairs last month to lobby on the merger, according to newly filed disclosures. — Brian Simon, a former aide to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, a former New York City councilmember, will lobby for the Empire State-based airline. They’re JetBlue’s third new lobbying firm since November. The airline also retained Bloom and Polaris Government Relations to work on the merger in recent months. — Delta Air Lines has also tapped some new outside lobbyists with New York ties. Delta has retained Lemma Strategies, founded by a former staffer for Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), to build relationships with lawmakers “to gain support for aviation projects, programs and initiatives” in Queens, where Delta is overseeing the redevelopment of terminals at both of the borough’s major airports. — Meanwhile FBB Federal Relations has signed a group that is pushing to raise the mandatory retirement age for pilots. FBB’s Ray Bucheger will lobby for a group called Let Experienced Pilots Fly, which is named after legislation from Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and would bump the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots to 67, up from 65, in a bid to address pilot shortages. END OF AN ERA: Myron Brilliant, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s longtime head of international affairs, is leaving the trade group at the end of the month after nearly three decades at the business lobby. — “It is impossible to list Myron’s many achievements,” Chamber President and CEO Suzanne Clark said in a statement. The Chamber has a presence in more than 130 countries, including American Chambers of Commerce around the globe and close to two dozen bilateral business councils, and Brilliant’s departure comes as “the demand for global advocacy is growing,” said Clark, who highlighted regulatory threats to American companies in an annual State of American Business address last month. — Brilliant hasn’t announced his next move yet, and the Chamber said it is launching a global search to succeed him “immediately.” TDY ADDS APPROPS AIDE: Health care-focused lobbying firm TDY has made another big hire from the Hill. Laura Friedel, who has served as the Republican staff director and clerk for the Senate Appropriations panel that oversees spending for the Labor Department and HHS for more than a decade, will join the firm later this month. — She previously spent six years working for former Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who was the top GOP appropriator in the Senate for the past several years. Those roles have made Friedel a key part of every appropriations bill going back years, in addition to the flurry of bipartisan Covid relief bills passed since the beginning of the pandemic. — Friedel is the latest Senate hire for TDY, whose clients include pharmaceutical trade groups like PhRMA and BIO, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Elevance Health, Abbott, the American Osteopathic Association and more. The firm’s other recent hires include top aides to the lawmakers who crafted last year’s drug pricing reforms: Peter Fise, the former health counsel to Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), joined last month, while Meg Joseph, the former chief of staff to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) headed to TDY in the fall. ON THE OFF CHANCE YOU MISSED IT: “Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is set to leave the Biden administration to run the NHL Players’ Association,” our Lisa Kashinsky, Eleanor Mueller and Nick Niedzwiadek report. The two sides are reportedly still in contract negotiations, but “Walsh’s departure would come amid a wider shakeup within the Biden administration as it begins the tail end of its first term in office and prepares for a possible reelection campaign.” — “A former union official who previously headed up the Building and Construction Trades Council in Boston, Walsh is set to return to his roots in organized labor after giving some consideration to making another run at elected office in his home state of Massachusetts.” — “Walsh played a high-profile role in several of the administration’s interactions with organized labor,” but his would-be temporary successor is also already causing some groups heartburn. “His departure would leave Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su, who oversaw the rollout of California’s divisive gig work law, as the agency’s acting head. That law, AB 5, established a new three-part test that redefined many of the state’s gig workers as employees.” — “Secretary Walsh recognized gig workers as an important part of the workforce with a unique need for flexible work,” said Adam Kovacevich, the head of the tech lobbying group Chamber of Progress, which counts gig companies like Uber and Lyft as members. “It’s critical that the next Labor Secretary recognize the value of gig work. Unfortunately, Deputy Secretary Su’s history in California raises questions about whether she would respect the will of gig workers who wish to remain independent.”
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