Former Rep. Norm Dicks (D., Wash.) will lobby for defense giant General Dynamics on appropriations issues, Politico reports. Dicks retired from Congress about a little over a year ago.
Dicks is still with the lobbying law firm Van Ness Feldman, but is also doing some lobbying work for GD under his own banner, Norm Dicks and Associates. General Dynamics reported paying him $60,000 in the first quarter of this year.
Dicks was the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee when he retired from Congress in 2013. The 18-term congressman was also the ranking member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
In Congress, Dicks was a big supporter of the General Dynamics-built double-V hull Stryker vehicles, which proved more successful against roadside bombs in Afghanistan than the regular model. He also supported adding money to the defense budget to keep the GD tank plant in Lima, Ohio, open after the Army proposed temporarily shutting it down due to lack of need.
