Bergner, Bockorny, Castagnetti, Hawkins & Brain

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This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Bergner, Bockorny, Castagnetti, Hawkins & Brain (BBCH&B) is a government relations consulting firm based in Washington D.C. "serving domestic and international clients" before members of Congressional committees, to the executive branch and US government and international agencies.

History

An internal budget review paper for the Philip Morris group of companies lists Bergener, Bockorny & Boyette, as it was then, as a "corporate affairs" adviser with a budget line item cost of $199,750.

The accompanying description of their work states "while a bipartisan lobbying firm, they were originally retained because of their strong House Republican contacts. Dave Bockorney was House liaison in the Reagan-Bush White House and is well respected by Republicans and Democrats alike". [1]

Personnel

Clients

The Australian Government's Office of Trade Negotiations within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) awarded a $A614, 306 (approximately contract to a joint tender bid from BBCHB and the law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw for "specialist advice - United States Free Trade Agreement". [3]

The lobbying contract for the two companies in support of the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement was extended until July 2004, even though the company works for pharmaceutical companies lobbying against the maintenance of Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. [4]

BBHCD does not list its clients on its website but other clients have included: Northwest Airlines [5] and Philip Morris.

Kim I. Eisler [6] reported the company raked in $360,000 in annual fees from Phillip Morris. Eisler's 1998 article also described Bergner and Bockorny (as the company was named then) as the "chief Washington lobbyists for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation Limited".

In May 2004, as mad cow disease-related policy issues continued to simmer in the United States, The Hill reported that BBHCD was retained "by a number of clients to monitor food safety issues in Washington." BBHCD's new clients included U.S. Premium Beef, the National Beef Packing Company and Agri Beef Company.[7]


Contact Information

Bergner, Bockorny, Castagnetti, Hawkins & Brain, Inc.
Suite 500
1101 16th Street, Northwest
Washington, D.C. 20036
Phone: 202.659.9111
Fax: 202.659.6387
http://www.bbchb.com/index.html

External links

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