Stacey Rolland
Senior Vice President, Emerging Technologies and Data Policy

On March 3, 2022, Stacey Rolland spoke at the Association for Data and Cyber Governance (ADCG) Spring Conference about recent federal policy developments in emerging technologies, data privacy, cybersecurity, and digital assets and what companies can do to advance their policy priorities and stay up to speed on the debates in Washington that impact their businesses and markets.

Watch the entire playback of Stacey’s presentation here.

WASHINGTON – Forbes Tate Partners (FTP) today announced the additions of Michael Pepe as a grassroots advocacy Senior Vice President and Taylor Mason as a state government relations Vice President. As FTP expands its federal and state advocacy programs, Pepe will focus on leading the firm’s grassroots practice, while Mason will join the firm’s growing state government affairs team. 

Pepe brings more than two decades of experience in strategic communications, grassroots, and grasstops campaigns. Prior to joining Forbes Tate Partners, Pepe served as a Senior Director of Communications at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he led strategic communications efforts for the financial services policy division. Pepe is a graduate of American University and Suffolk University Law School. Mason, a University of South Carolina graduate, has spent the past decade working closely with state and federal government agencies across the country and as a Communications Director for Rep. David Young, R-Iowa. Most recently, he helped launch The Rare Disease Company Coalition and served as the coalition’s Executive Director, guiding government and public affairs strategy, advising on policy positions, coordinating policymaker and third-party group outreach and advocacy, and driving membership development.

“Effective advocacy campaigns require a deep understanding of the legislative landscape and the key players involved in making policy decisions, which is why we are especially excited to bring Mike and Taylor on board,” said FTP Founding Partner Jeff Forbes. “Their years of expertise in grassroots, communications, field campaigns, and federal and state public policy will help us continue to execute winning campaigns for our clients across the board – from statehouses to Capitol Hill. We’re pleased to welcome them both to the team.”

“I look forward to bringing my grassroots advocacy experience to FTP and leading the firm’s growing field services team,” said Pepe. “I’m looking forward to leading the firm’s multi-talented teams and delivering impactful and successful campaigns for our clients. 

“This is an exciting time to join Forbes Tate as the firm grows its state government advocacy practice,” said Mason. “I’m thrilled to bring my strategic communications, policy, and advocacy experience to the team and working with some of the best state-level government relations experts in the business.”

FTP also welcomed Eliza Green as an analyst on the Public Affairs team. Prior to joining the firm, Green completed two internships at the Department of State — one at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the other at the Office of Policy, Planning, and Resources. Green is a graduate from The Ohio State University. 

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Forbes Tate Partners is a bipartisan, integrated full-service public affairs consultancy specializing in government relations, traditional and digital communications, grassroots advocacy and third-party coordination, insights and polling, coalition management, and business development. FTP can help you develop and deliver winning strategies to communicate and engage your key audiences.

This article was originally published in POLITICO.

As he waited inside Room 2358c of the Rayburn House Office Building, the realization set in for Brian Wallach that he had five minutes to shape the rest of his life.

Not save it. He had been given his death sentencenearly two years ago when, at the age of 37, on the day his newborn daughter came home from the hospital, his doctor told him he had the progressive neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS.

No, this was a chance to accomplish what he’d set out to do after that diagnosis, to make something of this final chapter, something that would materially impact others with this horrible, fatal illness and just maybe — after all, one must hope — allow him a chance to survive it too.

He was dressed in a sharp blue suit and a striped blue tie, the type of outfit he had confidently worn when he worked at the Obama White House or, after that, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, the arc of his professional achievements facing nary a disruption.

But that was then. Now, life was defined by disruptions — visible in subtle ways that day. He had always been thin but was thinner now. There was a hitch to his gait, a scratch in his voice and his fingers pinched as a result of his muscles slowly failing him. It was early April 2019. And, in classic D.C. fashion, it was unseasonably muggy. The room, packed with other patients and advocates, family members and supporters, made it all the worse.

As Brian waited, those patients and advocates took their turns sitting at a massive oval table placed in front of a dais, each getting five minutes to make the case that their disease deserved funding and attention from the members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

Five minutes. A clock was there to remind them that was all they got. And if that wasn’t enough of an indignity, there was the site at the dais: About a dozen chairs — plush and leather and arranged in a neat arc — sat empty. Only one member had come to listen: Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the subcommittee’s chair.

At 3:14 p.m., it was Brian’s turn. The timer started.

“I will not see my daughters grow up,” he said. His pace was methodical, owed to the practice sessions he’d done. There was only a slight strain in his voice. “There is no cure. Not because ALS can’t be cured but because we have underfunded the fight against ALS year after year after year. I know this committee doesn’t often hear from people with ALS. You don’t because ALS is a relentless churn. We diagnose. We die, quickly. We don’t have time to advocate.”

He implored the committee to take action, explaining that it had the power to save his and other patients’ lives. And then, it was over.

DeLauro, having sat there with her hands clasped in front of her mouth, thanked him for his testimony. Brian thanked her in return and stood up and left, fearful he’d burst into tears after she offered her hope that he’d see his daughters’ kindergarten graduations.

Off to the side, Brian’s wife Sandra was sobbing. Later, she would tell me how vulnerable she felt watching her husband speak, how “emotionally protective” she was seeing him sitting there at that table, weakened and alone.

“The intensity of being given five minutes to make the case for your life and the life of so many people. The intensity of that, the stakes of that, how dire it all is,” she recalled. “I fell apart.”

Brian eventually fell apart too. In the hall outside, he and Sandra embraced and cried together as Hill aides and others who had been in the room mingled around them. The next day, we texted.

“Wish my voice was stronger but other than that good,” he said of the testimony. “It is a start. We have a lot of work left.”

Over time, Brian would explain to me just what that work entailed. He didn’t just want to stand up an entirely new ALS advocacy group, or secure more funding for ALS research, or expand access to treatments for the roughly 15,000 Americans with ALS, or provide inspiration to others, or demonstrate to his children that their father, even in his abbreviated time, did something meaningful. He wanted to fundamentally alter the way patient advocacy works and how investments in medical research for fatal diseases were conceived.

“I like to dream small,” he would tell me in one of our many conversations.

Within two-and-a-half years, he had done it.

If Brian’s testimony before DeLauro’s committee was a starting gun for his legislative efforts, the finish line came in a little-noticed ceremony on Dec. 23, 2021. As much of political Washington D.C. was leaving town for the holidays, President Joe Biden signed into law the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act, or ACT for ALS.

The bill, which Brian helped write, authorized $100 million a year over a five-year period for ALS research and to help individuals with ALS who had been unable to participate in clinical trials to get expanded access to the new medications being studied. It established FDA guidelines around those studies along with grant programs to fund them. And it called for greater coordination, both between private and public researchers and between federal agencies with respect to their work on neurological diseases.

Congress has yet to decide exactly how to allocate that money and where the money will come from, but the authorization was historic. The Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 had raised $115 million total for ALS research. This did nearly the same every year over half a decade.

“It is not a stretch to say it could very well be life saving for many individuals with ALS,” said Paul Melmeyer, the vice president for public policy and advocacy at the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which worked alongside Brian in pushing for the bill. “Individuals who otherwise would have not obtained any investigational therapy or promising therapy … have a much greater opportunity to access these therapies. … This has never been done before.”

At the signing ceremony, Biden was flanked by screens showing ALS patients and advocates who had beamed in virtually for the occasion. He thanked them and members of Congress who had pushed for the legislation. But he singled out Brian and Sandra specifically.

“They turned their pain into purpose,” Biden said of the two.

Pain hadn’t always been a defining feature of Brian’s life.

In our talks over the past three years, he described an idyllic childhood in the D.C. area where it was almost preordained that he’d find success in a field of law, politics or somewhere in between. His grandfather had been the last U.S. ambassador to Iran. His mother practiced at the Securities and Exchange Commission. His father was a partner at the firm Hale & Dorr, currently known as WilmerHale.

Brian went to all the top institutions — St. Albans, Yale, Georgetown Law — excelled at sports and did the things a political striver would do. In college, he wrote his senior thesis on how presidents selected their cabinets.

Pain was introduced into the equation during his junior year at Yale when, unexpectedly, the dean of his residential college called him to say there was “some bad news” and that he needed to call his mother. His father had died of a heart attack. He was 54.

Brian often sidestepped my attempts to get him to reflect on how much this shaped his life, save to say that “it created in me this pursuit of the epic.” At one point, he told me that he believed if he lived longer than his dad, he “would be lucky” — not to make the point that ALS had been doubly cruel, depriving him of even his abridged version of what a full life would be, but to emphasize that his mindset was already on an accelerated path.

His younger brother, Peter, suggested that their dad’s death made Brian more risk tolerant and, in a way, ambitious; that suddenly it crystalized for him that time is finite and shouldn’t be wasted on side pursuits.

And it wasn’t. After Georgetown Law, Brian joined the Obama presidential campaign as its deputy political director for the New Hampshire primary. From there came a stint at the powerhouse firm Skadden, Arps before he went to work at the White House counsel’s office in 2011. His defining professional characteristic became his rather insane work ethic. I know because my wife was in the counsel’s office with him, and on the occasions when she’d work until 2 a.m., it would be Brian with whom she’d invariably share a cab ride home.

Years later, Brian was enduring long work hours once more, this time in Chicago as a federal criminal prosecutor in the U.S attorney’s office — the “dream job” that seemed to everyone around him like the logical launching pad for some future run for elected office. It was April 2017, and he was handling a case involving gun smugglers who had brought weapons from Indiana into Illinois.

His left hand cramped up and he dropped his pen. Minutes later, it happened again.

Brian was diagnosed with ALS a few months after the pen incident. He had been coughing throughout his time at the hospital where he and Sandra were waiting to bring their second daughter home. The neurologist that examined him said he likely had six months to live. A battery of tests and consultations followed, all bringing the same conclusion: It may not be six months, but he had a disease that meant the progressive degeneration of his brain’s motor nerve cells. It would kill him.

About a month after the diagnosis, Brian said, he first started thinking about what to do with the time left. In November, he met with a neurologist in Boston who planted an idea in his head. What if he and Sandra, who had been Sen. Dick Durbin’s press secretary before going to work on the Obama campaign and then becoming press secretary to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, applied their political backgrounds to ALS advocacy?

“I can’t tell you that you don’t have ALS,” the doctor told him. “But I can ask you this question. If you do have ALS, what do you want to do? You’re 37. You know lots of people. You can make a difference.”

He and Sandra started discussing whether they could start a new venture while juggling the demands of being parents and Brian’s deteriorating health. They did their research too. “We flew around the country and met with different groups to figure out if there was a single group doing this thing right,” Brian told me. “It’s like a presidential campaign, you want to figure out if this is the right thing for you.”

What they discovered was that, for all its lofty purposes, ALS advocacy lacked something fundamental: a basic understanding of how modern D.C. works. Pulling heart strings can get you a press release, but legislative outcomes require sustained engagement, robust fundraising and personal connections.

Sandra, for one, recalled her time on the Hill when advocates would have “fly-in” days to meet staff and push causes. “They’re emotional but that one moment in time doesn’t move the needle,” she told me. Activists were “building the wheel every time.”

The two decided to build something new. On Jan. 22, 2019, they launched I AM ALS. Unlike establishment groups that focused largely on policy, it would be unapologetic in tackling the politics of ALS. And, contrary to what Brian would tell DeLauro, it would place a big bet that victims of ALS could indeed be committed activists, even as they prepared for death.

The group would provide support and resources for those newly diagnosed. It would fund existing research and demand lawmakers spend more too. But the holy grail would be to convince the government to allow ALS patients greater access to clinical trials and to help pick up the tab, which lawmakers and federal agencies had been reluctant to do out of concern that it would be too expensive, that the payoff would be too uncertain, and that they would lure patients away from existing studies if new and potentially ground-breaking ones became available.

“If you testified in Congress and the question was, ‘Give us a complete rundown of all the progress we’ve made on ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases since Lou Gehrig’s [1939 “luckiest man”] speech,’ the testimony would not take long,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), one of the members with whom Brian worked most closely on the legislative push. “The fact is, we needed to pivot and take a different direction.”

To start the pivot, Brian turned to a kitchen cabinet of unpaid advisers who helped him stand up I AM ALS and connect him with key players across D.C. One of the first was Michael Slaby, who had been chief technology officer for Obama’s 2008 campaign, and currently serves as the group’s interim CEO. He enlisted Ben LaBolt, Obama’s press secretary for the 2012 campaign, to help with comms work, held semi-regular calls with other Obama alums, and utilized his connections to the Obama Foundation to get the former president to put out a video touting I AM ALS as a philosophical extension of the Obama campaign itself.

For the group’s board, he got, among others, Dan Tate, an ALS patient himself and a founding partner of the lobby shop Forbes Tate Partners, which on a pro bono basis helped coordinate I AM ALS’ grassroots and Hill strategy. And he hired a range of officials who worked at the intersection of biomedical research and politics for the day when he himself would be gone.

“One of the biggest difficulties for ALS groups is that when the person who founded the group gets sick, the group falls apart,” Brian told me.

He hired several lobbying shops, including Winning Strategies Washington. At the firm’s office in downtown D.C., Brian would occasionally work. In one session — which he let me sit in on before the firm’s staff kindly asked me to leave — the granularity of his involvement was on full display. He didn’t just want medical experts to accompany advocates to the Hill, he wanted them to have ready data for the question he and Sandra knew they’d get by some time-strapped legislative assistant: “Your story is moving. But how is it different from story 1, 2, 3, and 4?” He wanted to target lawmakers who worked on defense budgets by enlisting veterans who were suffering from ALS. (According to several studies, veterans are 1.5 to 2 times more likely to get ALS than those in the general population.) He wanted to underscore, ad nauseam, that ALS research could unlock cures for other neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinson’s and muscular dystrophy. Don’t ask for a moonshot, he stressed, ask for scientific discovery.

The group helped score some early victories, including getting the Pentagon to double its investments in ALS research from $10 million to $20 million, and then to double it again to $40 million. They created an ALS Caucus on the Hill. Brian personally delivered a letter and accompanying stack of paper signed by 10,089 ALS activists to the FDA demanding it publish long-promised, revised guidance on how ALS clinical trials could be designed. The agency subsequently did it.

Through it all, Brian seemed to be everywhere. Over coffee one day he casually dropped that he was in a rush to talk with David Bradley, the D.C. media mogul and founder of two of Washington’s top consultancies. At other times he was off to chat with top officials at the National Institutes of Health, or with Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg’s wife and head of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, at the Aspen Ideas Festival, or with Donald Trump’s FDA commissioners: first Scott Gottlieb and then Stephen Hahn.

“A human rolodex,” is how Eric Schultz, another Obama vet who has worked informally with Brian put it. “But it didn’t go to waste. A lot of people want that at their disposal for prestige purposes. But that wasn’t Brian and Sandra.”

The breakneck speed seemed unsustainable. But Brian found it calming to be working, especially around other patients, where conversations didn’t necessitate explaining what ALS was and how it affected people. He felt, in a way, responsibility toward them — not just because he had a skill set and connections that could be used to improve their lives but because, for the time being, he was able to stand and talk and do things that allowed him to fit in more easily among the rest of society.

But he also knew his clock was ticking. As we sat at a coffee shop in D.C. during one of those early Hill blitzes, he mentioned the awe he felt watching other prominent ALS activists who were more stricken by the disease than he was.

“You know you will be there,” Brian said. “But you don’t think about how you will be when you’re there.”

In June 2020, ACT for ALS was formally introduced.

Not surprisingly, Brian had done his homework. He scheduled a meeting with Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) because a legendary high school football coach in his state, Allan Trimble, had recently announced that he too had ALS. He worked with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) because her cousin’s husband had died of the disease. He collaborated on the idea of the ALS Caucus with Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who lost a cousin to ALS. He co-wrote a Fox News op-ed with Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), whose wife’s brother had the disease and who would be, along with Quigley, the main driver of the bill.

When Brian wasn’t meeting with lawmakers personally, his group and the activist community was pushing them, oftentimes aggressively. One Republican Hill aide described it as “a blowtorch of advocacy.”

“You have to understand,” Fortenberry told me, “When it comes to the small disease category, for an office to dedicate itself to it is a huge ask. We don’t have unlimited resources. Other offices might be sympathetic. But they don’t have the capacity to deal with this either. All of these things create hurdles and roadblocks. You have to have this almost unimaginable alignment for this to happen. And ultimately it takes perseverance from people like Brian.”

With Sandra as a media sherpa, Brian turned himself into an avatar for the cause. He did national TV, used Twitter vociferously and, after sitting for another magazine profile while he and I were talking for this piece, suggested as a fall back that we simply write a book. When he told me, more recently, that he had sat down for yet another magazine profile, his consolation prize was only slightly different. “If we don’t do the piece,” he wrote, “I got 2 book offers today.” In December 2019 he showed up in Times Square, as I AM ALS took over two massive billboards there that flashed signs like “ALS IS OVER If you want it” and “F*CK YOU ALS.” The billboard takeoverwas accompanied by an over-the-top Jerry Bruckheimer-like video promoting their promotion. In May 2020, Brian texted me that his organization had also gotten $350,000 to make a documentary, which is now 90 percent done.

It wasn’t just press for the sake of it. Sandra wanted to change the very perception of a classic ALS story from tragic into hopeful. “No one is going to engage and help us if you shut them down with a depressing story line,” she explained.

As his public persona grew, so too did the expectations and demands around him. At one meeting, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) — whom Brian had gotten to know through mutual friends — called him the “face of ALS.” Brian reacted nonchalantly to the compliment. But after Swalwell left the room, he showed some discomfort. The campaign wasn’t his alone. And while he desperately wanted to change how the government fought diseases like the one had, it was coming at a personal cost.

“You know you’ve been given this honor to be in this room but then you have a moment that I would rather be anywhere but here,” he told me.

Brian’s body was deteriorating. He was using a cane and would soon switch to a wheelchair. As the legislative process kept moving — with more co-sponsors signing on to the bill and negotiations over the contours of the expanded access program progressing — he began losing his ability to speak. Sandra stepped into the breach. On July 29, 2021, she delivered his testimony for him at a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee. She called it, “our closing argument for our lives.”

Anxiety was growing. Fortenberry said he feared Brian would die before the bill passed. Quigley, according to a person familiar with the internal talks, warned colleagues that if that were to happen, he would be livid. By the end of the year, the legislation had made it through the committee, with lawmakers having worked through sticking points over the expanded access funding guidelines. It had far more co-sponsors than votes needed. The question was when it would get a full vote.

The bill came to the House floor on Dec. 8 and passed 423-3. Eight days later, it unanimously passed the Senate. Within a week, Biden had signed it into law. Decades of relative inertia had been reversed in a month, all with Brian still alive.

“In an era of complete polarization, I AM ALS managed a minor miracle: winning overwhelming congressional support for a substantial, perhaps even transformational piece of legislation,” Ady Barkan, perhaps the most well-known ALS patient-advocate, said in an email. “Act For ALS was conceived of, written by, and passed because of people living with the disease and our loved ones. Brian and Sandra built a powerful organization, and mobilized the ALS community to accomplish something wonderful. I am grateful and in awe.”

A few weeks after Biden signed ACT for ALS into law, Brian announced that a person in his household had contracted Covid. For the mass of people dealing with the Omicron outbreak, this would have been an inconvenience. For Brian, it meant facing the possibility of death.

He and his family had taken extreme precautions to avoid getting the disease. Still, it had found him. His wife and daughters left for his in-laws, leaving Brian isolated at home with a caregiver.

When we texted, his answers were shorter than usual. He was not yet infected. They had caught it early. There was hope.

He had had scares before. One time he fell on a curb, busted his head open and ended up in the ER with 11 staples in his head. Two months ago, he rolled out of bed and gashed his head in two places. It was 2 a.m. Sandra couldn’t reach anyone on the phone to come help and was too scared to risk a Covid infection by bringing him to the ER. So they sat there for two hours as she used towels to staunch the bleeding until finally she felt comfortable walking over to a neighbor’s house to ask for help lifting Brian back into bed.

As he was surviving these brushes with death, those he had grown to find community with and solace from were not. When Pat Quinn, one of the Ice Bucket challenge organizers died, Brian told me it hit him hard, more so because he’d also lost four other friends that same month. A year earlier, when Pete Frates, the other Ice Bucket challenge organizer died, Brian shared an email he had received from Ady.

“Ady just emailed with an apt summary: ‘No one fucking survives this thing,’” Brian wrote. “For 150 years it has been true. Do I think we will succeed where others have not? Yes. It may sound insane but what I see every day in terms of progress is simply astounding.”

As we talked over the years, it became harder to see how Brian maintained this commitment. After all, he had the luxury of knowing what his father didn’t: that his time was finite.

He’d made adjustments. His phone was put in a drawer when he was with the kids. He planned trips to bucket list places. He no longer got frustrated by the annoying routines that accompany parenthood. He and Sandra talked about the end of life, what kind of care he would want and the logistics of dying. I asked him once if he believed the disease had made him a better person.

“It’s a difficult question to answer because,” he responded. “On the one hand, ALS leaves you with emotional and mental clarity vis-a-vis what matters in the world. It enables you to be more empathetic and in tune with people around you because you know even if they have a plan they may be struggling as much as you are.”

He and I were sitting in the Capitol that day, after yet another meeting with members and in preparation for a ceremony honoring Steve Gleason, the former NFL player stricken by ALS.

“But the reason why it’s hard to answer,” he went on, “is that, at the same time, I feel like I’m a worse father. I feel like I’m a worse husband. Not because I don’t want to be there but because I can’t physically be there and that, at times, causes me to withdraw. I see them playing and I want to go to them. But I know that if I do, there is a chance I can fall and that will be a disaster for everyone.”

With ALS, life changes don’t just happen to the patient but to those around him and her. Peter, for one, described the mental anguish of feeling an arm twitch and wondering if he would soon suffer his brother’s fate. The two talk almost every day as he tries to savor the time when he can still make out the words in Brian’s speech. He said he found himself, at times, wondering what he would say at his funeral.

Sandra, meanwhile, had to become a full-time caregiver while raising two young girls, all in the midst of a pandemic. The public face of determination she wore often hid the incredible toll the disease had taken.

“It is true that when something like this happens to you, you understand the beauty of the present moment,” she told me. “But the caveat for me is it is underpinned with grief.”

Brian’s response to all this — to the worrying, and the grief, and the literal and figurative ticking clocks — is to find some purpose in the moment and to take stock of what is good. To text with joy that, upon turning 41, he can still hold a beer with one hand. To post about the serenity of looking out over the waters of Lake Michigan, or the thrill of still being able to pick up his daughter from school.

“Every day in life is a sprint,” he once told me. “But I know that barring some terrible catastrophe, the end will not be tomorrow. Two-to-five years in the scheme of things is short. But I have this new temporal horizon where it feels remarkably long to me.”

At night, he signs off his last tweet with the phrase “Good Night Moon,” an homage to the famous children’s book in which a little bunny, heading off to sleep, looks around the room and says goodbye to all that’s in it and the stars, air and moon as well. He is grateful for what is there, both near and far, as he drifts off alone to a different place where that world won’t be.

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Forbes Tate Partners is a bipartisan, integrated full-service public affairs consultancy specializing in government relations, traditional and digital communications, grassroots advocacy and third-party coordination, insights and polling, coalition management, and business development. FTP can help you develop and deliver winning strategies to communicate and engage your key audiences.

WASHINGTON – Forbes Tate Partners (FTP) announced today the hiring of Christopher Brown as a senior analyst on the Research and Policy Analysis team, where he will conduct policy analysis, qualitative research, and legislative tracking. 

Prior to joining FTP, Christopher managed policy development, research, and strategic communications at Global Strategy Group. Brown’s experience also includes roles with FTI Consulting and Georgetown University’s Center for Poverty and Inequality. Additionally, Brown spent time on Capitol Hill working for Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif. In these roles, he focused on healthcare telecommunications issues and supporting non-profit organizations. 

 “Chris’s exceptional research abilities and knowledge of key policy areas will help us deliver the best results for our clients,” said FTP Founding Partner Jeff Forbes. “Our research department is an essential part of our team, providing the up-to-date information we and our clients need to advance our objectives in the Beltway and across the country. We’re excited to add Chris to this group of expert researchers.” 

Originally from Chicago, Brown holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government from the University of Notre Dame. Additionally, Brown received a master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. 

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Forbes Tate Partners is a bipartisan, integrated full-service public affairs consultancy specializing in government relations, traditional and digital communications, grassroots advocacy and third-party coordination, insights and polling, coalition management, and business development. FTP can help you develop and deliver winning strategies to communicate and engage your key audiences.

Sen. Harry Reid Alum Andres Ramirez Headlines New Hires

WASHINGTON – Forbes Tate Partners (FTP) announced today that Andres Ramirez, a veteran communications strategist and advocacy professional, has joined the firm as a senior vice president. As FTP continues to expand its public affairs work, Ramirez will help manage and develop high-level campaign strategies for the firm’s clients to advance their communications and advocacy goals. The bipartisan government and public affairs firm also added Will May and Colin Finnegan as senior directors within the Public Affairs practice. 

Andres, who began his career working with former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, has vast experience with numerous political and advocacy campaigns and think tanks, and served as vice president of Hispanic programs at the New Democrat Network. He was also vice chair of the DNC Hispanic Caucus leading engagement strategy through the 2012 election. Andres has years of involvement in public affairs and began his career in Washington, D.C. as a legislative aide to former U.S. Senator Harry Reid. He also led Nevada Governor Bob Miller’s D.C. office. Prior to joining FTP, Andres managed his own Las Vegas-based firm, the Ramirez Group, for more than 10 years.   

“We are thrilled to welcome an expert communicator like Andres to our team,” said FTP Founding Partner Jeff Forbes. “Andres’ experience and passion for political advocacy and multicultural communications will be a huge asset for our clients. He has earned tremendous respect from Republicans and Democrats alike and his deep understanding of what motivates lawmakers is key to success in today’s Washington. We are thrilled to have Andres aboard and are excited to share his expertise with our clients.” 

“It’s an honor to be a part of the FTP team,” said Ramirez. “I’m able to bring my local, state, and national experience to the table while working with some of D.C.’s best strategists.” 

Additionally, FTP has hired Colin Finnegan and William May as senior directors on the public affairs team. Colin and Will bring both grassroots and strategic communications expertise to the firm. They will help execute public affairs campaigns for clients across multiple industries. 

“Colin specializes in developing and executing communications strategies, particularly when it comes to energy and the environment advocacy. Additionally, Will has years of experience managing coalitions and brings a wide range of policy expertise,” said Forbes. “We are pleased to welcome them both to our growing team of public affairs professionals.” 

Before joining FTP, Colin was the director of external relations at Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions. Originally from Massachusetts, Colin graduated from Kenyon College and is currently an MBA candidate at NYU’s Stern School of Business.   

Prior to joining FTP, Will helped craft and manage campaigns for various associations, coalitions, and think tanks at a leading mid-sized public affairs firm in D.C. His work has supported clients in a range of sectors, including health care, transportation, and financial services. Will is a D.C. native and received his B.A. from Wake Forest University.   

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Forbes Tate Partners is a bipartisan, integrated full-service public affairs consultancy specializing in government relations, traditional and digital communications, grassroots advocacy and third-party coordination, insights and polling, coalition management, and business development. FTP can help you develop and deliver winning strategies to communicate and engage your key audiences.

In Congress

House Financial Services Committee

• On October 5, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission, with SEC Chair Gary Gensler testifying. The hearing covered the SEC’s authorities and functions, capital market structure issues, digital assets, ESG disclosure requirements, and other issues impacting U.S. financial stability.
  • Committee memo
  • Webcast: Oversight of the Securities and Exchange Committee: Wall Street’s Cop is Finally Back on the Beat
• On September 29, the House Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions held a hearing entitled “The Future of Banking: How Consolidation, Nonbank Competition, and Technology are Reshaping the Banking System.” The hearing covered how banks’ increasing size, the slower rate of de novo depository institutions, and the growth of nonbank and fintech companies have impacted access to financial products and services, as well as the Committee’s policy options to ensure competition, promote innovation, and increase access.
  • Committee memo
  • Webcast: The Future of Banking: How Consolidation, Nonbank Competition, and Technology are Reshaping the Banking System
• On September 21, the House Financial Services Committee Task Force on Financial Technology held a hearing entitled “Preserving the Right of Consumers to Access Personal Financial Data.” The hearing examined the increasing use of consumers’ financial data by fintech companies and financial institutions. It also covered policy questions about the use of consumer data following the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s November 2020 advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) on Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act and President Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order encouraging the CFPB to conduct rulemaking under Section 1033.
  • Committee memo
  • Webcast: Preserving the Right of Consumers to Access Personal Financial Data
• Upcoming hearing: On October 13, the House Financial Services Task Force on Artificial Intelligence will hold a hearing entitled “Beyond I, Robot: Ethics, Artificial Intelligence, and the Digital Age.” More to come…

Senate Commerce Committee

• On September 29, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing entitled “Protecting Consumer Privacy” that focused on how to better safeguard consumer privacy rights, including by equipping the Federal Trade Commission with the resources it needs to protect consumer privacy through the creation of a privacy bureau; and the need for a comprehensive federal privacy law.
  • This hearing is part of a series of hearings examining the growing urgency to protect consumer privacy and safeguard our data, as well as the need to ensure the Federal Trade Commission is equipped with the authorities and resources to fight digital harms and hold bad actors accountable for increasing privacy violations, data breaches, internet scams, ransomware assaults and other harmful data abuses.
• The next hearing in the series, entitled “Enhancing Data Security,” will be held on October 6 and will address major recent cybersecurity incidents, the impact of data breaches on consumers and businesses, and the current state of commercial data security practices.

Around the Agencies

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

• Rohit Chopra was confirmed by the Senate as Director of the CFPB on September 30 by a vote of 50-48.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

FTC Chair Vision and Priorities memo

• FTC Chair Lina Khan sent a memo to FTC staff and Commissioners outlining her vision and priorities for the agency. Among the takeaways are that the FTC intends to:
  • take an integrated approach to addressing antitrust and consumer protection violations, rather than a siloed approach within both the Bureau of Competition and Bureau of Consumer Protection
  • target enforcement actions on root causes of harm such as structural incentives that enable unlawful conduct
  • apply proactive attention to next-generation technologies and nascent industries
  • strengthen merger enforcement, scrutinize dominant firms, and revise merger guidelines
  • address dominant intermediaries such as gatekeepers and ways private equity and other investment vehicles influence incentives that may facilitate competition and consumer protection violations
  • focus on contract terms such as non-competes, repair restrictions, and exclusionary clauses

Report to Congress on Privacy and Security

• The FTC submitted a report to Congress in response to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 that directed the FTC to “conduct a comprehensive internal assessment measuring the agency’s current efforts related to data privacy and security while separately identifying all resource-based needs of the FTC to improve in these areas.” The report provides an overview of the FTC’s authority related to privacy and security and recent efforts; discusses priorities for improving efforts to protect Americans’ privacy; identifies areas in which additional resources are necessary; and discusses the need for Congressional action on FTC authorities.
• Republican FTC Commissioners issued formal dissents to the report’s detailed plan to aggressively use regulations and civil penalties to address harms from the overlapping of data privacy and competition/antitrust concerns and the absence of federal legislation.
• With former-FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra’s confirmation to lead the CFPB, the FTC is split between two Republican and two Democratic Commissioners until the Senate confirms nominee Alvaro Bedoya to fill Chopra’s seat.  

U.S. – EU Trade and Technology Council

• The U.S. – EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) met for the first time on September 29 in Pittsburgh. Following the meetings, the TTC released an Inaugural Joint Statement.
• The meetings were led by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis, and European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager.
• Vestager said the discussions on AI were among the meeting’s biggest takeaways. “Minds are meeting for artificial intelligence to be trustworthy, to be human centered, and to have a risk based approach,” Vestager told reporters after the meeting. (Reuters)
  • The European Commission’s draft Artificial Intelligence Act, released in April 2021, is an example of Europe’s risk-based approach to AI regulation.
• The TTC tasked 10 working groups to focus on key issues before the next meeting, expected next year:
  • Working Group 1 – Technology Standards: develop approaches for coordination and cooperation in critical and emerging technology standards including AI and other emerging technologies
  • Working Group 2 – Climate and Clean Tech: identify opportunities, measures, and incentives to support technology development, transatlantic trade and investment in climate neutral technologies, products, and services
  • Working Group 3 – Secure Supply Chains: Alongside a dedicated track on semiconductors, focus on advancing respective supply chain resilience and security of supply in key sectors for the green and digital transition and for securing the protection of citizens
  • Working Group 4 – Information and Communication Technology and Services (ICTS) Security and Competitiveness: continue to work towards ensuring security, diversity, interoperability and resilience across the ICT supply chain, including sensitive and critical areas such as 5G, undersea cables, data centers, and cloud infrastructure
  • Working Group 5 – Data Governance and Technology Platforms: exchange information on approaches to data governance and technology platform governance, seeking consistency and interoperability
  • Working Group 6 – Misuse of Technology Threatening Security and Human Rights: combat arbitrary or unlawful surveillance, including on social media platforms; explore building an effective mechanism to respond to Internet shutdowns; work to protect human rights defenders online; and increase transatlantic cooperation to address foreign information manipulation; address social scoring systems and to collaborate on projects furthering the development of trustworthy AI
  • Working Group 7 – Export Controls: engage in technical consultations on legislative and regulatory developments and exchange information on risk assessments and licensing good practices, as well as on compliance and enforcement approaches, promote convergent control approaches on sensitive dual-use technologies, and perform joint industry outreach on dual-use export controls
  • Working Group 8 – Investment Screening: exchange information on investment trends impacting security, on risk analysis and mitigation best practices, and together with other groups, including Export Controls, develop a holistic view of the policy tools addressing risks related to specific sensitive technologies
  • Working Group 9 – Promoting Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) Access to and Use of Digital Tools: use of digital tools is a key enabler for SMEs to innovate, grow and compete
  • Working Group 10 – Global Trade Challenges: focus on challenges from non-market economic policies and practices, avoiding new and unnecessary technical barriers in products and services of emerging technology, promoting and protecting labor rights and decent work, and trade and environment issues

Digital Assets

McHenry Letter to SEC

• Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter on October 5 to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler requesting clarification of Gensler’s recent remarks regarding the SEC’s authority to regulate the digital asset ecosystem.

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets on Stablecoins

• The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, led by the Treasury Department and including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, is reportedly expected to release a report in late October recommending bank-like regulation on cryptocurrency companies that issue stablecoins (digital currencies pegged to national currencies like the U.S. dollar). The report is expected to also recommend that the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) consider designating stablecoins as systemically important, which could lead to the Federal Reserve issuing more stringent risk management standards. In addition, the report is expected to recommend Congress consider legislation to create a special-purpose charter for these firms and advance investor protections for cryptocurrencies. (WSJ)

Federal Reserve on U.S. Digital Currency

• The Federal Reserve is expected to soon release a review of the potential benefits and risks of issuing a U.S. digital currency. The Fed plans to release a paper analyzing the issue (without making a policy recommendation) and seeking public comment. The Boston Fed, along with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is then expected to release a technical paper outlining how a digital dollar might work. (WSJ)

In Congress

FTC Bureau on Data Abuse

• On September 15, the House Energy and Commerce Committee moved forward on its portion of the Build Back Better Act. Included within their portion of the bill is a provision to provide the Federal Trade Commission with $1 billion to create a new bureau dedicated to stopping unfair and deceptive acts and practices related to privacy violations, data security incidents, identity theft, and data abuses.
• The provision represents a significant increase in the commission’s resources. FTC’s current annual budget is $330 million.
• The commission’s consumer protection bureau has far fewer people specifically tasked with privacy and data security issues than do comparable agencies in other countries — a gap that House Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) called “shocking” in 2019. (PoliticoPro)
• The subtitle can be found here: Subtitle O: Budget Reconciliation Legislative Recommendations Relating to FTC Privacy Enforcement 

Politico Tech Summit

• Politico hosted a “At a Digital Crossroads: Washington and Silicon Valley” tech summit on September 15. Politico’s takeaways included:
• Self-regulation isn’t going to cut it. According to lawmakers and advocates, no amount of defensive efforts by the tech industry is going to save companies from impending government intervention. “One of the things I like to say to the companies is … ‘If you’re willing to do it yourself, then why are you opposed to putting it into law?” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), chair of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee.
• Lawmakers and agencies are betting big that this is the time to make change. Nearly every panel included mention of policymakers’ bullishness on the legislative vehicles currently moving through Congress with major tech provisions. (Politico)

NDAA amendments

• There are a number of amendments submitted to H.R. 4350 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 that would affect emerging technologies. Among them include:
• Amendment #182: Amendment from Congressman Steven Horsford (D-NV) would authorize the Secretary of Defense to carry out a pilot program to establish data libraries containing data sets relevant to the development of artificial intelligence software and technology and to allow private companies to access such data libraries for the purposes of developing artificial intelligence models and other technical software solutions.
• Amendment #288: Amendment from Congressmen Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-MA) would direct the SEC and CFTC to establish a working group on digital assets.
• Amendment #665:  Amendment from Congressman Tony Gonzales (R-TX) and over 30 other Members would establish the National Digital Reserve Corps, a program within GSA that would allow private sector tech talent to work for the federal government for 30 days per calendar year to take on short term digital, cybersecurity, and AI projects. Reservists would report to GSA, who would then detail them to executive agencies as needed.
• The House Rules Committee is expected to consider the bill on Monday, September 20.
• The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2021, passed into law on January 1, 2021, included key provisions in emerging technologies such as the creation of the new National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office to be led by the White House, instructions to the Pentagon to take steps to ensure the AI technologies it acquires are developed in an ethically and responsibly-sourced manner, and instructions to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop an AI Risk Management Framework. The NDAA of 2021 also included a provision to develop the National Research Cloud to make computational resources and robust data sets publicly available to researchers. (see Stanford HAI)

Around the Agencies

FTC Health Data Breach Notification

• In a 3-2 vote on September 15, the Federal Trade Commission agreed on a new policy statement affirming that health apps and connected devices that collect or use consumers’ health information must comply with the Health Breach Notification Rule, which requires that they notify consumers and others when their health data is breached.
• “While this Rule imposes some measure of accountability on tech firms that abuse our personal information, a more fundamental problem is the commodification of sensitive health information, where companies can use this data to feed behavioral ads or power user analytics,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “Given the growing prevalence of surveillance-based advertising, the Commission should be scrutinizing what data is being collected in the first place and whether particular types of business models create incentives that necessarily place users at risk.”
• Under the new rule, any company offering health apps or connected devices that collect personal health data must notify consumers if their data has been compromised. The definition of “data breach” includes cybersecurity intrusion and unauthorized access to personal data, including the sharing of information without an individual’s permission. The FTC said it will “vigorously” enforce fines of $43,792 per violation per day. (TechCrunch)

SEC Request for Information on Use of Data Analytics and AI in Digital Customer Engagement

• The upcoming September 27 deadline is approaching for submitting comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission request for information and public comment on the use of digital engagement practices by broker-dealers and investment advisers. These tools include behavioral prompts, differential marketing, game-like features (commonly referred to as gamification), and other design elements or features designed to engage with retail investors on digital platforms (e.g., websites, portals, and applications), as well as the analytical and technological tools and methods (collectively called digital engagement practices (DEPs)). (SEC)
• “We’re at a transformational time. I really believe data analytics and AI can bring a lot of positives, but it means we should look back and think about what does this mean for user interface, user engagement, fairness and bias,” said SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler. “What does it mean about rules written in an earlier era?” (Reuters)

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Commerce: National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee Nominations

• Nominations to serve on the inaugural National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee and the Subcommittee on Artificial Intelligence and Law Enforcement are being collected by NIST until October 25.

Cryptocurrency

Proposals Affecting Cryptocurrency Making Their Way Through Congress

• H.R. 3684: Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
• There are several notable provisions affecting cryptocurrencies in the Senate-passed infrastructure legislation expected to be voted on in the House on September 27.
• Broker Reporting: Digital asset brokers would be required to collect identifying information from cryptocurrency users and report their annual activity to the IRS. The controversial provision defines broker as “any person who (for consideration) is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person.” If enacted, these reporting requirements would become effective for transactions entered into after December 31, 2022.
• Cash Payments: The bill would add digital assets to the reporting requirements under IRC Section 6050I, which requires any person conducting a business who receives over $10,000 in a single or in related transactions to file a Form 8300 to report the name, address, and tax identification number of the person from whom the cash was received, the amount of cash received, and the date and nature of the transaction.
• Digital Asset Definition: A digital asset is defined in the bill as “any digital representation of value which is recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger or any similar technology as specified by the Secretary.”
• Build Back Better Act (Reconciliation)
• Wash Sale Rule: Included within the offset title of the House Ways and Means Committee’s portion of the Build Back Better Act reconciliation package is an expansion of the current wash sale rule to include digital assets, commodities, and foreign currencies. Section-by-Section, Legislative Text, JCT Description. The wash sale rule disallows losses incurred from the sale or disposition of stock or securities when a taxpayer acquires substantially identical stock or securities within 30 days before or after the disposition of the original stock or securities. The rule is intended to prevent taxpayers from creating artificial losses when their economic positions have not meaningfully changed. The committee’s legislative text proposes replacing the term “stock or securities” wherever it appears in section 1091 with the term “specified assets.” In regard to cryptocurrencies, the plan defines specified assets as any digital representation of value that is recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger or any similar technology as specified by the Treasury secretary. The amendments would apply to sales and other dispositions after December 31, 2021. (Tax Notes)

Senator Hassan Letter to Agencies on Cryptocurrency Exchange Know Your Customer Rules

• Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent a letter to multiple agencies, including the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, raising concerns about the use of cryptocurrency in cyberattacks and as a means of payment for ransomware. Hassan calls for robust Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency kiosks, and OTC cryptocurrency trading desks. The letter requests information on the agencies’ current authorities and any necessary additional authorities Congress could grant.

Senator Toomey Request for Public Comment

• The September 27 deadline is quickly approaching for public comments on the request from Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-PA) for ideas and legislative proposals from the public to ensure federal law supports the development of emerging cryptocurrency and open blockchain network technologies while continuing to protect crypto investors. Senator Toomey stated he intends to use the responses in forming legislation that clarifies ambiguity around how existing laws, especially in the tax and securities realms, may apply to cryptocurrencies.

FTP’s Senior Vice President for Emerging Technologies and Data Policy, Stacey Rolland, recently spoke with the Association for Data and Cyber Governance on the future of federal regulation for data and emerging technologies and what this means for businesses. The full replay is available below. 

This presentation is available for download here.

As President Biden rolls out his ambitious infrastructure plan, he faces one of his first major challenges, garnering enough support from the business community to ease Congressional passage. With the proposed tax hike, many businesses are weary of embracing the roughly $2 trillion package. As trade associations and other groups vow to lobby against this tax increase, the Biden administration is wading through uncharted waters considering the same community of business professionals embraced his earlier legislation, the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package, and have long been calling for infrastructure investments provided in the proposal. While the tax increase has ignited an industry-wide debate, Forbes Tate Partners’ own Stacey Rolland provides a grounding perspective to this ordeal in a statement to The Hill. In the article detailing the gridlock between Biden, Republicans, and the business community, Rolland explains,  

“It’s clear there’s a potential for the business community to support a broader infrastructure plan, something that they’ve long called for, and it’s important to remember we’re only at the very beginning of this process…There will be a lot of work, discussions with members, and negotiations ahead to strike the right balance for passage.”  

To read more about Rolland’s perspective and the debate the administration faces, click here.  

About Forbes Tate Partners: 

Forbes Tate Partners is a bipartisan, integrated full-service public affairs consultancy specializing in government relations, communications, grassroots advocacy and third-party coordination, coalition management, and business development. The firm develops and implements strategies and campaigns related to tax, health care, financial services, trade, energy, telecommunications, appropriations, outdoor recreation and natural resource management, and agriculture. Longtime strategists Jeff Forbes and Dan Tate, Jr. founded the firm in 2012.

In the January federal runoff election in Georgia, voter turnout skyrocketed. While 57 percent of Georgia’s 2008 general election voters turned out for that year’s election runoffs, 91 percent of Georgia’s 2020 general election voters turned out for the most recent runoffs. This begs the question: what mobilized so many more individuals to vote this January than in 2008? There were multiple, extraneous factors, but one driver of voter turnout was grassroots campaigning.

• 2 million – New Georgia Project knocked over 2 million doors in the leadup to the runoff elections. Other groups knocked thousands more. (The New York Times)
• 5 million – In addition to door knocking, New Georgia Project also made 5 million phone calls, focusing on voters of color. They also sent 3 million text messages. (Vox)
• 1 million – Latino group Mi Familia Vota sent 1 million text messages leading up to the runoffs, micro-targeting the growing Latino population in the state. (11 alive)
• 16 – The Georgia Democratic Party held phone banks in 16 different languages, reaching voters of many cultures and ethnicities. (WABE)
• Over 1,000 – The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent over 1,000 staffers to Georgia, plus thousands of additional volunteers to knock doors and work the field. (WABE)
• 2,165 – A delegation of Republicans from California traveled 2,165 miles to Georgia to knock doors for former Sens. Loeffler and Perdue, showing the national party’s investment in the Georgia races. (LA Times)
• 300 – College Republicans made calls in Georgia as part of their distributed organizing program, demonstrating the wide range of Gen Z involvement in this race. (CNN)

These grassroots actions made an impact, particularly in close races. In the general election, Senator Jon Ossoff received fewer votes than former Senator David Perdue in Georgia. In January’s runoffs, Ossoff came back and beat Perdue, but by a mere 55,232 votes. Between November 2020 and the runoff election in January 2021, more than 75,000 new voters registered to vote in Georgia amidst grassroots campaigning in their communities.

While grassroots activation and corresponding voter turnout hit unprecedented numbers surrounding U.S. elections this cycle, many of the tactics employed can be replicated for any issue campaign. When plotting out campaign strategy, it is important to consider strategic earned media in local outlets, engaging in social media conversations amongst key stakeholders, and initiating constituent outreach through letter-writing or patch-through phone call programs – among other tactics. As we have written before, politics is more personal than ever. One of the most effective ways to reach decisionmakers is to first reach individuals.