Dan H. Renberg

Client Work

In recent years, Dan has represented numerous corporate clients, trade associations, and nonprofit organizations on a wide variety of public policy matters, including securing federal funds, and has assisted clients in resolving issues before Congress and Executive Branch agencies. Dan has worked with clients who need innovative strategic planning and tireless advocacy in the nation’s capital on issues that include health policy, trade, tax policy, energy, Medicare reimbursement, transportation infrastructure, biomedical research, and economic development. Leaders of hospital systems, universities, publicly traded corporations, small businesses, trade associations, and financial institutions regularly depend on Dan’s assistance in achieving their diverse policy goals in a time of divided government. From drafting legislation to orchestrating Twitter campaigns to prepping witnesses for Congressional hearings, Dan’s lobbying engagements rely on a diverse set of skills. In addition, Dan advises U.S. and foreign clients on trade finance and project finance transactions and assists clients in expanding into foreign markets.

Dan’s recent successful client matters include:

• Serving as lead lobbyist for the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights, a nationwide coalition of terminated General Motors and Chrysler dealers that secured hundreds of cosponsors for legislation which would help restore their dealerships, and ultimately obtained unprecedented bipartisan legislation in December, 2009 establishing an arbitration process by which they could seek reinstatement. His work included communicating on an almost daily basis with hundreds of auto dealers, helping prepare them for a major fly-in and Capitol press conference attended by the House Majority Leader, and working on the media campaign, including guidance regarding the coalition’s website content. More than 700 dealerships were reinstated as a result of the Committee’s advocacy campaign. ArentFox Schiff’s effort on behalf of the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights was selected as one of the “Top 10 Lobbying Triumphs of 2009” by The Hill, the highly respected Washington, DC newspaper dedicated to covering the U.S. Congress.
• Representing the American Association of Teaching Health Centers and its more than 50 community-based health care facilities, Dan has led an informal coalition of stakeholder associations since 2016 and helped secure enactment of multi-year reauthorizations for a graduate medical education program as well as a doubling of the funding for this program that was created in the Affordable Care Act. Lobbying involved negotiations with key Members of Congress, Energy and Commerce and HELP Committee staff, and leadership staff, helping orchestrate several fly-ins by association members, negotiating with other stakeholder groups, prepping clients for Congressional testimony, and helping direct social media efforts. 
• Representing the American Psychological Association, Dan has helped develop and implement an initiative regarding reimbursement under the Medicare program for psychologists and neuropsychologists. This effort included multiple Congressional meetings as well as facilitating meetings with senior CMS officials. 
• Serving as lead lobbyist for the Fragrance Creators Association, the trade group for domestic and global companies in the fragrance industry and several large consumer products companies. Lobbying activities have included orchestrating two annual fly-ins with more than 50 meetings and advising on legislative and regulatory policy initiatives in the areas of trade, tax, and environmental policy.
• Assisted in drafting bipartisan legislation regarding expedited referrals to medical specialists for pregnant military personnel who may need fetal surgery to correct a birth defect. The President signed this provision into law in the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act.
• Assisted the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), a coalition of more than 200 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), with ongoing legislative monitoring, advocacy, and implementation of the annual association fly-in. Assisted in securing increased federal appropriations for the Treasury Department’s CDFI program, and helped obtain reauthorization of the Bond Guarantee Program in annual appropriations bills and renewal of New Markets Tax Credit.
• Assisting associations and individual clients such as hospitals and universities in helping them develop and execute strategies to advocate for increased funding for priority programs or to forestall significant funding reductions in the proposed federal budget or during the appropriations process. Issues included higher education/student aid, medical profession training, scientific and technological research, economic development, and tax incentives, among others.
• Assisting hospital clients in securing health care-oriented report language in the committee reports accompanying the FY14, FY15, and FY17 National Defense Authorization Acts in the House and Senate. Similarly, we assisted a client in securing committee report language for 2014 legislation reauthorizing autism programs in the jurisdiction of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
• Assisted a corporate client in developing and implementing a Congressional and Executive Branch strategy for obtaining beneficial modifications to federal clean energy tax incentives and reducing obstacles for increased utilization of such incentives, including successfully advocating for a provision in tax bills reported favorably out of the Senate Finance Committee in 2014 and 2015.
• Assisted a medical device distributor in overcoming a CMS reimbursement policy decision that distorted the previously level playing field for three similar types of products (and which immediately halved the company’s sales). Through a coordinated effort involving Members of Congress who represent the company, as well as support from the Congressional Vision Caucus leadership, we obtained a rescission of the CMS reimbursement policy decision in the 2016 HOPPS rule.
• Developed and implemented political and legislative strategies to improve a draft rule being considered by the Federal Trade Commission for a consumer products company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Dan and his colleagues also assisted the company in developing Congressional support for its positions and in generating Congressional action on this issue, including obtaining an opportunity for a corporate official to testify before the House Small Business Committee.
• Collaborating with members of the ArentFox Schiff Health Care and Litigation practice groups, helped preserve the viability of a medical device distribution company faced with an erroneous bureaucratic decision that revoked the company’s participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, putting more than 150 jobs in jeopardy. The strategy used the client’s Congressional delegation and Governor to press CMS to ensure expedited review of the reconsideration request. Within 11 days, CMS reported to the client that the contractor had agreed with the client’s regulatory filing and that there would be no disruption to the company’s sales or shipments to its customers, many of whom are part of an at-risk population that requires a stable supply of products from our client.
• Assisted in securing significant funding line items for Florida light rail project in the Department of Transportation Budget and appropriations bill, including advocacy before senior Executive Branch officials and Congress.
• Forming a coalition of Pennsylvania-based nonprofits, “Pennsylvania Gives,” to advocate on issues related to the federal charitable tax deduction.
• Assisting a U.S. manufacturer in obtaining a $5 million working capital line of credit to support its exports.
• Serving as primary Washington counsel in support of a regional passenger rail project in Pennsylvania, including helping obtain nearly $20 million in appropriations over several years for engineering and design work, advising on issues before the Federal Transit Administration, and working on legislation authorizing the final construction phase.
• Representing Americans Standing for the Simplification of Estate Tax (ASSET), a tax coalition dedicated to reforming and simplifying the estate tax, including drafting legislation, supporting advocacy materials, and working with key Members of Congress and their staff.

Previous Work

Upon the completion of his term as a member of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Dan joined ArentFox Schiff  in 2003. After his nomination to a Republican seat on the Board by President Bill Clinton, he was confirmed by the US Senate in November 1999 and served in both the Clinton and Bush Administrations as one of five full-time members of the Board. He participated in the authorization of more than $20 billion in U.S. export financing in sectors such as energy, transportation, telecommunications, advanced medical equipment, and agriculture for buyers throughout the world. He was a frequent speaker at trade and economic development conferences and other events in 29 states and seven countries and worked on trade finance initiatives with the governments of Mexico, Hungary, Slovakia, and Uzbekistan. Dan also directed the Bank’s Environmental Exports Program, including a renewable energy exports initiative. He served as one of three audit committee members, responsible for the selection and oversight of the bank’s external and internal auditors, and worked to resolve corporate governance issues.

Prior to his position at the Export-Import Bank, Dan ran Renberg Strategies, LLC, a Washington, DC consulting and lobbying firm that represented private and public sector clients, including nonprofits, before the Legislative and Executive Branches in the areas of transportation, higher education, health care, and economic development, including successful efforts to obtain federal appropriations legislation. Dan is the former Legislative Director and Deputy Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), for whom he managed a 13-person legislative staff and assisted on all legislative issues, including annual appropriations bills, with particular emphasis on transportation, budget, environment, energy, and health care policy.

Publications, Presentations & Recognitions

Dan is frequently quoted in articles about government relations matters, including this Law360 article.

He is a sought-after presenter to leading organizations that seek his insights on policy and legal developments critical to their missions. Recent presentations have included the American Association of Family Physicians, International Credit Executives of Wisconsin, the Fragrance Creators Association, Milwaukee International Trade Association, the Credit Research Foundation, and the American Chambers of Commerce in Stockholm and Oslo. At these events, he has led discussions on topics that include overviews of the 116th Congress, developments regarding the federal budget and appropriations, trade policy, health policy, entitlement reform, tax reform, and other policy issues central to such organizations.

Dan is also a frequent speaker and moderator at conferences on export finance throughout the United States, including several appearances at the National District Export Council Conference on topics such as Environmental Export Strategies.

Dan’s publications include two books: A House of Ill Repute (editor); 1987, and Congress in the Information Society (author); 1986, and several law journal articles.

Dan has been listed in the 2014-2024 editions of The Best Lawyers in America.

Life Beyond the Law

In his spare time, Dan is a devoted husband and father of three children who have recently followed in their mother’s footsteps to the University of Michigan, creating a deeper resentment of Ohio State University than Dan anticipated when his kids were born. In recent years, Dan found a respite from client work by attending the major league All Star Game with his son, a Taylor Swift concert with one daughter, and multiple hockey games with his other daughter. Always one to hog the remote control at home, he can usually be found alternating between CSPAN 2’s coverage of the U.S. Senate and ESPN sports programming. Dan has served for a decade on the Board of Directors of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education and regularly advises the Headway Foundation, a nonprofit his daughter helped start and which is aimed at raising concussion awareness and spreading critically needed information to young people who have suffered such injuries.