Kristina Dunklin
Partner
Kristina advises companies, trade associations, and nonprofits on federal appropriations and legislative strategy, with more than a decade of experience across House Appropriations and the principal authorizing committees.
Kristina is a partner in FTP’s government relations practice. She helps companies, trade associations, and nonprofits secure federal funding and move their legislative priorities through Congress. Her command comes from more than a decade across House Appropriations and Energy and Commerce, and from relationships that run deep across the House Republican Conference. For clients who need a program funded, a priority written into an appropriations bill, or a policy advanced before Congress and the administration, Kristina builds and executes strategies that work both the process and politics to deliver.
As legislative director to Congresswoman Susan W. Brooks (R-IN), Kristina led the office’s work on the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, helping drive two of the era’s most significant public health laws, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, the federal response to the opioid epidemic, and the reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which governs how the nation prepares for pandemics and biological threats. As legislative director to Congressman David G. Valadao (R-CA), she ran his agenda on the House Appropriations Committee across agriculture, healthcare, energy, trade, and water, and helped advance the Western Water and American Food Security Act into the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act, which authorized new federal investments in water storage for drought-stricken California and water systems nationwide.
Today, Kristina advises clients across many sectors including healthcare, life sciences, environment, energy, utilities, agriculture, and technology, along with patient-advocacy coalitions, on how to navigate the appropriations cycle and the high-stakes funding and policy fights that shape their industries. She pairs her House Republican relationships with a practical, member-by-member command of how federal money actually moves, and what it takes to turn a client’s priority into a line in the federal budget. A native Californian who got her start in campaigns up and down the state, Kristina stays closely connected to the California delegation she has worked with throughout her career. Kristina holds a B.S. in Political Science and a minor in Communications from Santa Clara University.
