Influence Alley

As the new congressional session dawns, trade groups are staffing up for a fresh round of legislative battles. The National Restaurant Association announced Tuesday it had selected former Senate aide Matt Walker as its new vice president of government affairs. Walker will lead the group’s advocacy efforts in the Senate.

Walker joins the other NRA after working as deputy staff director and chief counsel of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and senior aide to former Sen. Olympia Snowe.

“Matt’s Senate tenure and policy expertise on small business issues will allow him to be an effective advocate on behalf of America’s nearly one million restaurants,” Scott DeFife, executive vice president of the National Restaurant Association, said in a statement. “The foodservice industry is affected by policy decisions on a wide array of issues, ranging from tax reform to health care to immigration reform, and the National Restaurant Association’s policy team will be working in 2013 to promote policies that allow restaurants to continue to create jobs. Matt is a valued addition to our team at a critical time.”