American League of Lobbyists - Organization: Board & Officers

Paul T. Kelly

Paul T. Kelly is a veteran of the legislative, regulatory and policy battles in Washington D.C. Over a 20 year career, he is credited with numerous legislative and regulatory accomplishments on variety of business issues, with an emphasis on healthcare and retail industry matters. An experienced and highly effective spokesman before government and the media, he is currently an independent government affairs consultant offering a range of services including strategic advocacy planning, direct lobbying, grassroots organizing, coalition development and political action organization and management.

For five years starting in January 2007, he served as Vice President, Federal Government Affairs at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. While there, he achieved several important lobbying victories on the industry's top priorities, including the health care reform legislation of 2010 (Public Law 111-148). That law includes provisions to increase pharmacy reimbursement in Medicaid, improve medication management services in the Medicare Part D drug benefit and other "pro-pharmacy" provisions. He was also designated as the association's sole witness during health reform hearings in the House Energy and Commerce Committee in June of 2009.

From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Kelly served as the Senior Vice President, Government Affairs for the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), an alliance of large retail chains and their product and service suppliers. He was the association's chief lobbyist in the U.S. Congress, federal agencies and state legislatures. While there, RILA scored a major legislative victory in securing passage of the Safe Ports Act (Pub Law 109-347) and, most importantly, fending off cargo scanning amendments that would have crippled retail supply chains. He also served as RILA's designated witness before the House Education and Workforce Committee on hearings on ERISA and state-based health insurance mandates in May of 2006.

From 1999 to 2004, Mr. Kelly served his first five year tenure with NACDS as Vice President of Federal Legislative Affairs. During this time, he led the association's lobbying efforts on Medicare prescription drug legislation, pharmacy manpower issues, medication therapy management reimbursement, prescription drug and OTC diversion, loss prevention and general retail issues.

Mr. Kelly was also Senior Federal Lobbyist for the American Dietetic Association, the professional association for the nation's 70,000 plus registered dietitians and nutritionists. Prior to that, he served as Director of Government Relations for the American Chiropractic Association (ACA). Early in his career he worked for several lobbying firms, including Clifford & Warnke, the firm of former Secretary of Defense and presidential advisor Clark Clifford. During college and graduate school, he worked as a paid intern in the U.S. Senate and as an administrative staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives.