President-elect Donald Trump has named J. Steven Hart, a longtime Washington lobbyist who focuses on tax and employee benefits, as the leader of his labor transition team.
Hart, an attorney and accountant who perennially appears on lists of top D.C. lobbyists, is chairman of the law and lobbying firm Williams & Jensen. Hart brings experience from regulatory posts in the government—he worked at the Labor Department on benefits and retirement issues. Hart did not respond to request for an interview.
Hart joined Williams & Jensen in 1984 and became chairman in 1999. At the firm, he has lobbied for many Fortune 500 companies—in 2016 alone, according to filings from the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database, Hart's clients have included General Electric, Coca-Cola, Pfizer and Visa.
Lobbying filings show Hart has also has represented a wide variety of industry advocacy groups, from the American Bankers Association to Wine and Spirit Wholesalers of America. He is also a top GOP fundraiser, according to a 2011 article in The Hill.
Much of Hart's lobbying work has focused on tax and benefits issues. Filings also show that Hart lobbies on a wide variety of topics—including transportation appropriations, financial regulations and homeland security.
Before joining Williams & Jensen, Hart worked in the Pension Welfare Benefits Program—now called the Employee Benefits Security Administration. The agency is responsible for enforcing the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, the act that creates minimum standards for private health and pension plans. He also worked for the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation, a government agency in charge of protecting retirement income, and has served on an ERISA task force at White House Office of Management and Budget.
