| Good morning, Early Birds. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mused on Thursday that Democrats might rework the Build Back Better Act so extensively that they'd need to rename it. What should they call it? Send your suggestions and tips to earlytips@washpost.com. (Alliterative acronyms are encouraged but not required.) Thanks for waking up with us. | | |  | On K Street | | Joe Crowley opens up about John Boehner and that Met gala dress |  (Washington Post illustration; Chip Somodevilla/Getty; iStock) | | | Twelve questions for … former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.): We chatted with the former congressman, who was talked about as a potential future speaker before he lost his 2018 primary to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in an upset. Crowley is now a lobbyist at Squire Patton Boggs, where he works with former House speaker John Boehner, among others. This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. The Early: It's been almost three years since you landed at Squire Patton Boggs. What's surprised you most about becoming a lobbyist? Crowley: I think what's surprised me the most is that there's a whole other world out there beyond Congress and elective office. I had served in elective office for 32 years. So it's been refreshing in many respects — the opportunity to meet other people and to be engaged on issues of substance that matter to me still. I think that I've been able to maintain my relationships, a lot of my relationships with my friends on the Hill as well, which has been great. The Early: Who are some of the lawmakers who you've stayed close with? Crowley: [Rep.] Eddie Perlmutter [(D-Colo.)] and I are very close friends. [Reps.] Tom Suozzi [(D-N.Y.)], Kathleen Rice [(D-N.Y.)], Bill Pascrell [(D-N.J.), Mike Doyle [(D-Pa.)], Tim Ryan [(D-Ohio)]. Just a bunch of folks that I've just been great friends with throughout the years, and we retain those friendships. | | The Early: You served in the House for 16 years with Boehner in the House. Any Boehner anecdotes you can share? Crowley: John was one of the first people I talked to after I lost my seat. He was not recruiting me, but he told me the firm was interested in me. I've gotten to know him very well now. We've worked on a couple of issues together, one in particular on the pension reform issue. I just think the world of him. He's a wonderful guy. Great sense of humor. The Early: Some lobbyists have rules about certain clients or industries they won't represent — tobacco companies, for instance, or foreign governments. Do you have any such rules about clients you won't lobby for? Crowley: You know, I judge that when approached. Certainly would never represent the interests of the gun industry, for instance. I'd have no interest in that. Obviously I think there would be certain countries that I would not be necessarily interested in representing. The Early: When former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) lost his primary in 2014 in an upset, you told The Washington Post, "As kids we all had that nightmare on a Saturday morning that we overslept for school, or missed a test. This is like the mature nightmare of a member of Congress: they wake up and have a dream that they lost their seat. Except that when it really happens and it's more than a nightmare, it's a reality." Is that what it was like for you? Crowley: That was a good quote. [Laughs] It was disappointing. But at the same time, you look at the opportunities that open before you. For instance, right now one of our clients is the musicFIRST Coalition. I'm able to move forward on an issue I care very much about: performers' rights. Or for that matter, I'm a topline co-producer for a Broadway play called "Paradise Square" that'll open this March, and I would never have that opportunity to work on something like that as a member of Congress. The Early: What was the last book you finished? And what are you reading now? Crowley: The last book I finished was written by a fellow I'm friendly with, Tim Egan. It was "A Pilgrimage to Eternity." It's about a personal journey on an ancient trek in Europe — a soul-searching kind of book. And what I'm reading right now is "What Hath God Wrought." It's by Daniel Walker Howe. And it's about the time period between roughly 1800 and the Civil War. It's very interesting. I'm a history buff. The Early: To steal a question that New York magazine used to ask: Who is your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional? Crowley: Man, I wish Bruce Springsteen were born in New York. [Laughs.] I interned for [former New York Gov.] Mario Cuomo and I worked briefly for him. And then I was in state legislature when he was governor and I tremendously admired him. I would say Mario Cuomo. | | The Early: You're a big enough Springsteen fan that you named your dog Bruce, and you played "Born to Run" and dedicated it to Ocasio-Cortez after her victory in the primary in 2018. What's your favorite Springsteen song to play? Crowley: My favorite Springsteen song to play is "Rosalita." When I first heard it, I was with my cousin in Rockaway Beach, New York, in the backyard of his house. I was 15. He was 18. I love every aspect of it: the joy of the song — the complexity of it, too — but the joy of the song. It's an exhilarating song, I think. I never turn it off when it's on the radio, I don't care how long it is. I just love that song. The Early: What did you think of the dress that Ocasio-Cortez wore to the Met Gala last year? Crowley: Looked like a perfectly nice dress to me. The Early: Have you been in touch with her at all since she took office? When was when was the last time you spoke? Crowley: You know, we haven't had much contact. The Early: Have you ever lobbied her office? Crowley: No. | | Ex-Rep. Joe Crowley, who was defeated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, on her Met gala dress | "Looked like a perfectly nice dress to me." | | | | | | | K Street's top firms report record revenue one year into the Biden administration | | Raking it in: The first year of a new presidency typically means a boom in business on K Street, and the Biden administration was no exception. Several Washington lobbying firms reported record revenue, according to numbers shared with The Early ahead of Thursday's filing deadline for fourth-quarter lobbying disclosures. | | "We had a banner year," Marc Lampkin, the managing partner of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck's Washington office, said in an interview. The firm saw its lobbying revenue climb 14 percent to record heights, driven by its clients effort to influence Biden's covid relief efforts, the infrastructure bill and Democrats' stalled child care, health care and climate package. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Washington's No. 2 lobbying by revenue, also reported a record-breaking year. While the Build Back Better Act remains unfinished, Lampkin doesn't expect the boom to continue much longer. "We're smart, mature and sober enough to realize that these things will level off and come back to the old normal in 2022," he said. But Andrew Rosenberg, a partners at a smaller firm, Thorn Run Partners, predicted this year would be even more lucrative. Three weeks into 2022, "we've already grabbed a handful of new clients," he said. Here's what some of K Street's top firms earned in lobbying revenue last year: | - Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld: $53.4 million (versus $49.6 million in 2020)
- Ballard Partners: $18.6 million (versus $24.6 million in 2020)
- BGR Group: $35.1 million (versus $31.9 million in 2020)
- Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck: $56.3 million (versus $49.3 million in 2020)
- Cassidy & Associates: $20.6 million (versus $16.9 million in 2020)
- Covington & Burling: $17.3 million (versus $16.4 million in 2020)
- Crossroads Strategies: $21.7 million (versus $16.5 million in 2020)
- Fierce Government Relations: $12.7 million (versus $13.2 million in 2020)
- Holland & Knight: $34.9 million (versus $28.2 million in 2020)
- Invariant: $31.2 million (versus $21.1 million in 2020)
- K&L Gates: $21.2 million (versus $18.6 million in 2020)
- Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas: $23.8 million (versus $19.3 million in 2020)
- Squire Patton Boggs: $24.4 million (versus $24.3 million in 2020)
- Subject Matter: $18.2 million (versus $14.5 million in 2020)
- Thorn Run Partners: $18.9 million (versus $14.2 million in 2020)
| | |  | At the White House | | Biden's comments on Ukraine spark controversy at home and abroad |  President Joe Biden holds a news conference in the East Room of the White House on January 19, 2022. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post) | | | "Minor incursion," major blowback: President Biden's remark about a potential "minor incursion" by Russia into Ukrainian territory threw the administration on Thursday "into cleanup mode, reassuring allies and foes that the U.S. would view any crossing by Russian troops into Ukraine as unacceptable aggression," our colleagues Tyler Pager and Paul Sonne report. | - White House press secretary Jen Psaki put out a statement less than an hour after Biden finished speaking, "saying any Russian move across the Ukraine border would be 'met with a swift, severe, and united response. The damage control picked up speed on Thursday with live comments from Vice President Harris in morning television interviews and from Biden himself later in the day."
- And White House chief of staff Ron Klain went on NBC News on Thursday evening to defend Biden's comments, saying there was "no ambiguity" about the White House's position. "President Putin should have no doubt any move by the Russian assembled military across the border of Ukraine is an invasion," he said.
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