Puerto Rico lacks a voting member of Congress, but 38-year-old Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck partner Manuel Ortiz often serves as the voice of the U.S. territory in Washington. Ortiz, who has been a lobbyist in Washington for more than 10 years, has worked on many issues concerning the U.S. territory for clients that include Puerto Rico’s Senate, the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico and the city of San Juan.
He said one of his biggest lobbying accomplishments was on behalf of the territory’s poor residents. The lobbyist helped secure a $500 million increase in funding for the Medicare and Medicaid programs in Puerto Rico under President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care legislation that became law last year. “When I have the ability to help poor people in my native Puerto Rico, that is probably the most gratifying work I do,” Ortiz said.
