Lobbying by industry looks different on the surface and runs the same way underneath. A client’s need becomes a work product, the work product travels a pathway, and the pathway lands on a committee, a subcommittee or an agency docket. Capiro’s back office carries every step, for every sector.
ONE ROUTE TO WASHINGTON01 / 12
INDUSTRYDefense and Aerospace
WORK PRODUCTNDAA requests
PATHWAYNDAA authorization
LANDS ATHASC · SASC · House Rules
THE ROUTE
Four steps, in every industry.
Defense, health, energy or trade: the names change, the structure does not. This is the chain the back office is built around.
01INDUSTRY
Every client starts somewhere.
A sector, its programs, its facilities and the issues it cares about. The client record holds all of it, and the history of every ask.
Twelve sectors, both chambers and the regulatory agencies. Choose an industry to follow its work, start from a committee to see who lands there, or open every route at once.
Pick an industry, then tap any step to trace its route.
INDUSTRY
WORK PRODUCT
PATHWAY
LANDS AT
Defense and AerospaceDefense primes and their suppliers, aerospace and space companies, universities and labs with defense research, and communities with military installations.
Defense primes and their suppliers, aerospace and space companies, universities and labs with defense research, and communities with military installations.
WORK PRODUCTNDAA requestsBill and report language that asks the armed services committees to authorize a program or move a funding-table line.IntelligenceClient MemoryProductionExecution
PATHWAYNDAA authorizationRequests in winter and spring, committee markups in late spring and summer, floor action and conference later in the year.
LANDS AT
HASCHouse Armed Services Committee
SASCSenate Armed Services Committee
House RulesHouse Rules Committee, the gate for floor amendments
WORK PRODUCTDefense appropriations requestsProgrammatic and language requests submitted through member offices, plus continuing-resolution anomalies and supplementals when the year slips.IntelligenceProductionRelationshipsExecution
PATHWAYDefense appropriationsMember request portals open in winter and spring, subcommittees mark up in late spring and summer, final bills often land after October 1.
LANDS AT
DefenseDefense Appropriations Subcommittees
MilCon-VAMilitary Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittees
WORK PRODUCTTestimony and hearing materialsOutside-witness testimony, questions for the record and talking points for posture season.IntelligenceClient MemoryProduction
PATHWAYOversight and posture hearingsPosture hearings follow the budget request in late winter and spring; oversight runs all year.
LANDS AT
HASCHouse Armed Services Committee
SASCSenate Armed Services Committee
DefenseDefense Appropriations Subcommittees
WORK PRODUCTBudget formulation and regulatory commentsEngagement while the department builds future budgets, unfunded-priority positioning, and comments on DFARS cases and export rules.StrategyIntelligenceProductionRelationships
PATHWAYBudget formulation and defense regulationThe budget request arrives early in the year and the next one is built through spring and summer; rules move year-round.
LANDS AT
DoD and export controlsDepartment of Defense, DFARS and the export-control agencies (BIS and DDTC)
OMB and OIRAOffice of Management and Budget and its Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which reviews significant rules
Select Committee on the CCPHouse Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party
WORK PRODUCT
NDAA requests
Bill and report language that asks the armed services committees to authorize a program or move a funding-table line.
WHAT THE BACK OFFICE CARRIES
Intelligence reads the bills, rules and hearings against the client.
Client Memory holds last cycle’s asks, outcomes and commitments.
Production drafts the work product from the client record.
Execution tracks deadlines, portals and follow-up.
A person approves anything before it leaves the firm.
WHEN IT MOVESTypical pattern; dates shift each year and by chamber
JanJ
FebF
MarM
AprA
MayM
JunJ
JulJ
AugA
SepS
OctO
NovN
DecD
Member requestsCommittee markupsFloorConference
Member requestsSubcommittee markupsFiscal year endsFinal bills
Posture hearingsOversight
Budget requestUnfunded prioritiesNext budget built
12
industries
36
kinds of work product
39
pathways
30
committees and subcommittees
15
agencies and review points
THE TEAMS
For the people who carry the work.
Lobbying firms
A book of clients across many industries at once. One back office carries every client’s routes, so a defense request and a health comment letter move in the same week without anyone rebuilding the context.
In-house government affairs teams
One organization, often several pathways: funding, authorization and the agencies that regulate it. The back office ties each route to the programs and places the organization depends on.
Associations, coalitions and nonprofits
Issue campaigns that touch several committees and many members. The back office keeps the positions, the calendar and the coalition’s commitments in one record.
INDUSTRY BY INDUSTRY
What the work looks like in each sector.
The work products, the pathways and the committees and agencies each sector reaches, and the parts of the back office that carry it.
01
Defense and Aerospace
Defense primes and their suppliers, aerospace and space companies, universities and labs with defense research, and communities with military installations.
Defense work runs on the most structured calendar in Washington: an authorization bill every year, a defense appropriations bill every year, and a Pentagon budget built two years ahead.
THE WORK
NDAA requests. Bill and report language that asks the armed services committees to authorize a program or move a funding-table line.
Defense appropriations requests. Programmatic and language requests submitted through member offices, plus continuing-resolution anomalies and supplementals when the year slips.
Testimony and hearing materials. Outside-witness testimony, questions for the record and talking points for posture season.
Budget formulation and regulatory comments. Engagement while the department builds future budgets, unfunded-priority positioning, and comments on DFARS cases and export rules.
Hospitals and health systems, drug and device makers, insurers, physician and patient groups, and medical research institutions.
Health work splits between Congress and the agencies: research funding in appropriations, the largest program changes in Medicare legislation, and an annual cycle of payment rules at CMS.
THE WORK
Appropriations requests. NIH, HRSA and CDC program requests and report language.
Authorization and Medicare provisions. FDA user-fee riders, public health preparedness, and Medicare and drug-pricing language.
CMS and FDA comments. Comments on the annual Medicare payment rules for hospitals and physicians, and on FDA dockets and guidance.
Airports, airlines and aerospace manufacturers, ports, transit agencies, railroads, trucking, and the cities and counties building infrastructure.
Transportation work follows reauthorization cycles for aviation, surface transportation and water projects, with annual funding and safety rules in between.
THE WORK
Community project and water project requests. Community project funding requests through member offices, and Army Corps project proposals for the Water Resources Development Act.
Reauthorization provisions. Language for FAA, surface transportation and Coast Guard reauthorizations.
Safety rule comments. Aviation safety, drone and advanced air mobility, and motor carrier rules.
Conservation groups, water utilities, tribes, outdoor recreation and land-use interests, and companies operating under environmental permits.
Environmental work is rule-driven: much of it happens at EPA and Interior, with Congress funding the agencies, writing land and water policy, and sometimes overturning final rules.
THE WORK
Appropriations and project requests. Interior, EPA and Forest Service requests, and restoration projects.
Authorization provisions and testimony. Public lands, NEPA and water policy.
Rule comments and review campaigns. Clean Air and Clean Water Act rules, endangered species decisions and permits, and Congressional Review Act resolutions once rules are final.
Technology and AI companies, telecom carriers, semiconductor and hardware makers, and research-driven manufacturers.
Technology work spreads across more committees than almost any other sector, with research funding, policy fights and agency dockets running at the same time.
THE WORK
Appropriations and report language. NSF, NIST and NASA requests and directive report language.
Policy testimony and provisions. Telecom, competition, privacy, AI and research policy, and China competition.
Docket comments and trade actions. FCC and FTC dockets, export-control comments and tariff exclusion requests.
Banks and credit unions, asset managers, insurers, fintech companies, and housing developers and lenders.
Financial services is a regulation-first sector: comment letters to the financial regulators are a large share of the work, alongside tax legislation and banking and housing policy.
THE WORK
Tax and reconciliation provisions. Tax packages, housing credits and retirement provisions, often moving through reconciliation.
Policy testimony and provisions. Banking, securities, housing and fintech legislation.
Comment letters. Capital, disclosure, market structure and consumer protection rules.
Employers and industry associations, unions, workforce boards and training providers, and retirement plan sponsors.
Labor and workforce work runs through the education and labor committees and Labor-HHS funding, with wage, safety and labor-relations rules at the agencies.
THE WORK
Testimony and positions. Workforce, pension and labor policy.
Rule comments. Wage and hour, workplace safety and labor-relations rules.
Companies with global supply chains, exporters, NGOs and development organizations, and foreign principals and their representatives.
International work combines foreign assistance funding, sanctions and foreign policy legislation, and a compliance calendar that never stops.
THE WORK
Appropriations requests. State Department, foreign assistance and international program requests.
Sanctions and policy provisions. Sanctions language and arms-sale positions, often moving on the NDAA.
FARA, sanctions and export filings. Registration and supplemental statements for foreign principals, and sanctions and export license filings. Filings remain the registrant’s responsibility; the record keeps what they draw on.
All of them. Capiro is the AI back office for lobbyists and government affairs teams, and the back office works the same way for every client: it remembers the client’s history, reads government activity against its priorities, drafts the work product and keeps the deadlines moving. This page maps twelve sectors, from defense and health to financial services and international trade, and the route each one’s work takes through Washington.
Does Capiro cover agencies and rulemaking, or only Congress?
Both. Many sectors do as much work at the agencies as on the Hill: CMS payment rules for health care, financial regulators for banks and asset managers, FERC dockets for energy. Capiro reads proposed rules and dockets alongside bills and hearings, and prepares comment letters from the client’s record for a person to review.
Can one client span several industries?
Yes. A client profile carries every route its work takes. A defense manufacturer can have NDAA requests, a tax provision and an export-control comment in the same record, each with its own pathway, calendar and owner.
Does it cover both the House and the Senate?
Yes. Appropriations requests, authorization asks and testimony go to both chambers, often through different portals with different deadlines. Capiro keeps each office’s requirements and deadlines with the client, so nothing depends on one person’s calendar.
Is Capiro built for one sector?
No. Every sector that engages Washington moves through the same steps: a work product is prepared, it travels a pathway, and it lands on a committee, a subcommittee or an agency docket. The back office is built around those steps, so it carries a health system’s CMS comments the same way it carries a defense supplier’s NDAA request.
Whatever the industry, more capacity for every client.
Capiro is the AI back office for lobbyists and government affairs teams. Meri, the AI Chief of Staff inside it, prepares the work on every route, and your team decides what goes out.
Here Meri answers from Capiro's public FAQ and can make mistakes. Chats are saved to improve our answers. In Capiro, Meri answers from your own client memory.
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