So, what is a lobbyist?
Lobbyists are professional advocates who attempt to influence government decisions and legislation on behalf of their employers or clients by cultivating relationships with politicians and other officials and presenting their points of view on given policies. In practice, that typically means meeting with lawmakers or their staff, providing research or policy arguments and trying to shape how a bill is written or whether it passes.
In addition to in-person meetings, lobbying can include phone calls, emails, events and informal conversations where ideas and priorities are pushed in a certain direction. For many, it’s a full-time job. This includes those who work for firms based in Washington, D.C., who focus on federal legislation and policy. Some companies also employ in-house lobbyists.
Influencers who lobby the federal government — whether Congress or the executive branch, including agencies — must register when they meet certain thresholds. For in-house lobbyists, those include spending more than 20% of one’s time on lobbying activities and spending more than $16,000 on those activities in a given quarter.
Both of those limits must be met to impel the need for registration, a requirement organizations from the American Bar Association to The New York Times have recommended making more stringent.
“The problem is the Lobby Disclosure Act relies on lobbyists to be honest and to actually recognize that they’ve passed that 20% threshold and should register,” said Holman, who has advocated for more transparency in the process. “The only remedy to that, if someone is not being honest, is for the Department of Justice to do an audit.”
He added that would be unlikely in this case.
The supply chain economics of tungsten
The use of the element tungsten is highly popular in the defense industry because of its extreme density and hardness and resistance to high temperatures, making it ideal for armor-piercing munitions and aerospace components. It is often used in bullets and missiles as a nontoxic, high-performance alternative to lead and depleted uranium.
The U.S. does not mine tungsten domestically, but China accounts for 80% of the world‘s supply, which has been a concern to aerospace and defense industries.
Global Tungsten and Powders describes itself as a “leading western supplier of high-quality tungsten & tungsten carbide powders.” The company, a subsidiary of Australia-based Plansee Group, also produces finished metal components for aerospace and defense.
Federal filings show the company lobbying the White House, Congress, the Department of Defense and the Defense Logistics Agency on issues related to tungsten procurement, the National Defense Stockpile, defense appropriations, energy and water appropriations and multiple versions of the National Defense Authorization Act.
Such efforts included imposing tariffs on tungsten imports from China, creating tariff exemptions on their own imports, prohibiting purchase of tungsten from some countries, and obtaining federal support for production activities.
Garrity touts her lobbying activity
According to her LinkedIn profile, Garrity joined Global Tungsten and Powders as an associate accountant in 1987 and worked her way up through the accounting and marketing departments before her promotion to vice president in 2019.
Garrity was also tied to a broader industry lobbying network. From 2010 through 2019, she was listed on IRS filings as a director of the Munitions Industrial Base Task Force. That group spent $1.09 million lobbying Congress and executive agencies on munitions issues, defense appropriations and authorizations, procurement and tax matters during that time.
It was as vice president that she engaged in the most direct lobbying activities. Garrity repeatedly described herself as someone who pushed legislation and worked directly with lawmakers to secure policy outcomes.
“My last assignment, I was pice president of government affairs and industry liaison, and what I did in that role is pushed legislation to help the U.S. industrial base,” she said in a 2023 interview for 2822 News’ show “Veterans Voices.”