Chris Jaarda, who has spent the past two years as a senior policy adviser and counsel to House Speaker Mike Johnson, has left the Hill to join Holland & Knight as a partner in the firm’s lobbying practice.
Jaarda’s portfolio in Johnson’s office spanned a variety of topics, including privacy, emerging technologies, foreign intelligence, homeland security and supply chain and production issues. His role also involved serving as a liaison between the speaker’s office and House panels such as the Energy & Commerce Committee, Oversight Committee, Judiciary Committee and Homeland Security Committee. Jaarda said in an interview that he worked closely on seven of the 11 titles in this summer’s GOP megabill.
Now, he’ll advise the firm’s clients on their engagement at the state and federal levels as the Trump administration and statehouses begin to implement the law. (In August, Holland & Knight hired Andrew Siracuse, another former Hill staffer who worked on the reconciliation bill under Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn.)
Jaarda, who plans on registering to lobby, also has insights about key players on the Hill, especially as it pertains to the way Johnson has managed to navigate Republicans’ razor-thin House majority. “I think understanding that process, and what moves the needle on certain issues, hopefully will be very helpful” to the firm’s clients, he said.
Jaarda earlier spent three years working for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), including serving as Cruz’s deputy chief of staff for policy and legislative director. Before that, he did stints for former Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), the Senate GOP Policy Committee and former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), in addition to starting his own consulting firm.
Jaarda is the latest House GOP leadership staffer to head downtown in the past year. Johnson’s policy director, Dan Ziegler, left the Hill in the spring to return to Williams & Jensen. And a handful of top aides to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, including his longtime chief of staff, have decamped for the private sector as well.
