10-28-2000

LOBBYING: K Street For October 28

Tires and Brimstone


With tire safety (or lack thereof) still under scrutiny, the Rubber
Manufacturers Association has turned to a few heavy-duty, wide-tread
lobbyists for help. For emergency calls on the Hill, the rubber makers
tapped former Reps. Vic Fazio, D-Calif., and Vin Weber, R-Minn., both of
whom work out of Clark & Weinstock. They also signed up the firm of
Fierce & Isakowitz to pitch in strategic advice. In the wake of the
big Bridgestone-Firestone tire recall, the association backed legislation
that beefs up safety standards for tires. But the group opposed tough
criminal penalties that were dropped from the version of the bill that
Congress approved. Meanwhile, in an interesting twist, Fleishman-Hillard,
which was hired by the tire makers last summer to plan a consumer
education campaign, has been tasked to help eradicate any lingering bad
vibes about the industry that stem from the Bridgestone-Firestone fiasco.
(The PR shop, you may recall, uh, remember, worked for Bridgestone after
its problems exploded onto front pages, but then after two months or so,
Fleishman-Hillard abruptly sped away from the account because, the firm
said, it "could no longer be of service.")


Sales, Ahoy!


A Clearwater, Fla.-based company, R.M.S. Titanic Inc., which wants to
salvage items from the "unsinkable" passenger liner that went
down like a rock in 1912, has enlisted a Washington law firm to help it
gain access to the wreckage. Harold E. Mesirow and Charles A. Hunnicut,
partners at the law shop Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, said without
elaborating that the object of their lobbying effort would be the 1986
R.M.S. Titanic Maritime Memorial Act. The law directed the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to decide whether salvagers should
be permitted to remove items from the ship. The agency's guidelines,
released for public comment over the summer, would bar the sale of
salvaged items and establish the remains of the Titanic as a marine
memorial. In any event, a federal judge says Congress must approve the
proposed regulations before they can take effect.


Patton Boggs, Into the Pits


Chemicals and materials biggie W.R. Grace & Co., based in Columbia,
Md., has turned to a Washington biggie in a case involving Montana mines.
It has hired Patton Boggs (and its crew of loophole prospectors who once
enforced U.S. environmental laws) to intercede with the Environmental
Protection Agency in negotiations over the cleanup of contaminated
vermiculite mines in Montana. The mines are blamed for scores of
asbestos-related illnesses and deaths among mine workers and nearby
residents. "W.R. Grace recognizes that they have some responsibility,
and they'd like to negotiate a settlement with EPA and put this behind
them," said Parker Brugge, a Patton Boggs partner and a former
counselor in the emvironmenta; agency's solid waste and emergency response
unit. Also manning a pick on the account is Patton Boggs partner Peter D.
Robertson, a former acting deputy EPA administrator. W.R. Grace has hired
the Denver-based law firm of Holme Roberts & Owen to handle litigation
with the asbestos claimants.


Peter H. Stone and Shawn Zeller

National Journal