Bill Huizenga has represented West Michigan in Congress since 2011, and he is asking voters for a ninth term. For almost that whole time, the people running his office have been walking out the door and into jobs lobbying Congress for the industries his committee regulates.

American Journal News counted at least a dozen people who worked in Huizenga's office and were lobbyists before or after. We checked the three most senior ones against the federal lobbying disclosure system, where every paid lobbyist has to list their clients and the government jobs they held before. All three are there, and all three list Bill Huizenga as their old boss.

The chief of staff went to an insurance company

Jon DeWitte ran Huizenga's office. A Travelers lobbying report from 2022 lists his old job as "COS, Rep. Huizenga 2011-2022" — chief of staff for more than a decade.

His new employer is Travelers, one of the biggest insurance companies in the country. Travelers is still filing reports that name DeWitte as one of its lobbyists. In just the second quarter of 2026, the company reported spending $670,000 lobbying the federal government on insurance issues — everything from asbestos and bankruptcy rules to wildfire and climate-risk policy.

The deputy chiefs went to Vanguard and TransUnion

Huizenga had two deputy chiefs of staff who followed the same path.

• Marliss McManus is listed as a lobbyist with "Rep. Bill Huizenga 01/2011-09/2021" on a 2021 lobbying report for the investment giant Vanguard. The same form shows four years on the staff of the House Financial Services Committee. Vanguard reported spending $610,000 in the first three months of 2026 lobbying on mutual funds, stock-market rules, retirement accounts and taxes — including Trump's budget bill. McManus is listed on that filing.
• Palmer Rafferty is listed with "Legislative Director, Deputy Chief of Staff, Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI)" on a 2026 lobbying report for the Structured Finance Association, a securitization trade group, and is a registered lobbyist for TransUnion, one of the three big credit-reporting companies. TransUnion reported spending $520,000 in the second quarter of 2026, lobbying on credit scores, consumer credit and data privacy.

American Journal News reports that before joining Huizenga's office in 2011, McManus had lobbied for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. The disclosure system confirms that too. So McManus went from an insurance lobby to Huizenga's office, and then from Huizenga's office to Vanguard.

The outlet counted at least seven more former staffers who became lobbyists. They include a senior legislative assistant who now works for drug companies Bayer, Eli Lilly and Novartis.

Why the committee matters

None of these people would be worth much to their new employers if their old boss had no power over the industry. Huizenga has plenty.

In January 2025, House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill named Huizenga the committee's vice chairman. That committee oversees banks, insurance, investment firms, the stock market and the credit bureaus. Travelers, Vanguard and TransUnion are exactly the kind of companies that live or die by what it does.

This is how the revolving door works. A lobbyist who ran a congressman's office for 11 years doesn't need an appointment. They know the staff, the schedule and the pressure points. And the staffers still inside the office know that a well-paid job may be waiting on the other side if they keep the industry happy.

It fits the rest of his record

The staff pipeline isn't the only place Huizenga's work and Wall Street's interests overlap. We've already reported that Huizenga owned individual stocks for seven years while sitting on the committee that oversees the stock market. Now a nearly $1 million ad campaign praises him for voting to ban congressional stock trading.

It isn't unique to him, either. In South Dakota, we found that Mike Rounds pays a senior adviser more than $153,000 a year while Meta and a tobacco company were paying the same man.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has named Huizenga one of the most vulnerable Republicans on the ballot this year. His Democratic opponent is state Sen. Sean McCann.

What the filings show

Bill Huizenga is vice chairman of the House committee that oversees banks, insurers and investment firms. His chief of staff of 11 years now lobbies for Travelers, which spent $670,000 lobbying in a single quarter of 2026. His two deputy chiefs of staff lobby for Vanguard and TransUnion, which spent $610,000 and $520,000 in single quarters this year. A former senior adviser lobbied for an aerospace company, and at least seven more former staffers have become lobbyists, including one who now lobbies for drug companies.

Source

Huizenga's revolving door: at least a dozen staffers became lobbyists — American Journal News. Photo: Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images.