Amazon.com Inc. has turned to lobbyists at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to help its drone delivery program take flight. The online retailer hired Akin to engage in “advocacy with regard to testing and operation of [unmanned aerial vehicles] in the U.S.” for Amazon Prime Air, according to lobbying registration paperwork. Akin is the first outside firm to lobby for Prime Air, which Amazon chief executive officer Jeff Bezos unveiled in December. The lobbyists on the account include Akin partner Ed Pagano, senior policy adviser Michael Drobac and senior public policy specialist Melanie Goggins. Drobac, who was Netflix Inc.’s first in-house lobbyist, and Goggins previously lobbied for Amazon at Patton Boggs before they joined Akin this year. Amazon hopes to start drone delivery as soon as the regulations are final, according to the company’s website. With Prime Air, Amazon wants to deliver orders to customers in less than 30 minutes. “It looks like science fiction, but it’s real,” the company says on its website. — Andrew Ramonas
VOTING RIGHTS REVIEWED
Exactly one year after the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the Voting Rights Act, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on proposed legislation aimed at reviving the law. The committee will gather on the morning of June 25 to consider the Voting Rights Amendment Act, which would update the so-called “preclearance” formula of the 1965 law that was struck down by the court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder.
