National Propane Gas Association Ends 26-Year In-House Lobbying Operation, Shifts to External Firms

The National Propane Gas Association filed an LDA termination in the Second Quarter of 2025, closing out an in-house lobbying registration that had been active since 1999. The filing — a lobbying disclosure act termination effective April 10, 2025 — reported $230,000 in final-quarter spending and ended a 78-filing run spanning more than two decades of Washington advocacy on behalf of the U.S. propane industry.

But NPGA hasn't gone quiet. Disclosure records show the trade association has hired two external lobbying firms to continue work on key policy fronts — a restructuring of its advocacy apparatus rather than a withdrawal from it.

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Why the LDA Termination Matters

A Long-Running, Well-Funded Operation Goes Dark

NPGA's in-house lobbying registration termination closes the books on one of the more durable trade association advocacy operations in the energy space. The organization — which represents roughly 2,300 to 3,200 member companies across all 50 states — filed 78 lobbying disclosures since registering in 1999, with quarterly spending typically ranging from $150,000 to $260,000.

At its peak, NPGA reported $460,000 in a single half-year period in 2008. More recently, the association spent $690,000 in the 2023–2024 cycle and was reporting $150,000 to $230,000 per quarter through early 2025, according to disclosure records.

Because this was an in-house operation — NPGA served as both registrant and client — there are no other clients affected by this lobbying registration termination. The entire apparatus existed to advocate for the propane industry.

NPGA Has Already Hired Replacements

Even as NPGA wound down its in-house lobbying registration, it brought on two external firms:

Smith-Free Group LLC began filing on NPGA's behalf in the Second Quarter of 2025, reporting $30,000 per quarter across three filings through the Fourth Quarter. The firm's work covers taxation (alternative fuel tax credits), budget and appropriations (including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act), and defense (the FY2026 NDAA). Its registered lobbyists on the NPGA account include John Christie III, Jack S. Deuser Jr., Trevor William Kolego, and Jeffrey Maxwell Becker.

Ridge Path Strategies LLC filed a single Third Quarter 2025 report for $10,000, focused on international trade issues. Lobbyists Madison M. Smith and Brian Christopher Diffell are listed on the account.

Combined, the external firms are billing roughly $40,000 per quarter — a fraction of the $150,000-plus NPGA was spending in-house. NPGA also continued filing its own quarterly reports after the in-house lobbying termination filing, including a Third Quarter 2025 report for $170,000, suggesting some residual in-house activity or a transitional period.

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Broader Context: What's Happening on the Hill

The Policy Landscape Has Shifted

NPGA's in-house lobbying operation covered an ambitious range of issues: energy regulation, alternative fuel tax credits, transportation safety, LIHEAP funding, agricultural propane storage, military installations, and appliance efficiency standards, among others. The 119th Congress lobbying disclosure filings show the association was active on more than a dozen issue codes.

Several of the bills NPGA lobbied on during the 118th Congress never made it past committee. The Energy Choice Act (H.R. 6089), which would have blocked state and local fuel bans, died without advancing. The Rail Safety Act (S. 576) stalled despite post-East Palestine momentum. Farm Bill propane storage provisions in H.R. 1290 went nowhere, and the Farm Bill itself remains unfinished business in the 119th Congress.

The Save Our Gas Stoves Act (H.R. 1640) passed the House in June 2023 but died in the Senate.

NPGA did notch wins on two major omnibus bills during the 117th Congress: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684), which included propane-eligible provisions, and the Inflation Reduction Act (H.R. 5376), which extended alternative fuel and infrastructure tax credits that the propane industry qualifies for.

The Administration Changed the Calculus

The return of the Trump administration in January 2025 altered the lobbying math for the propane industry. Many of the defensive battles NPGA was waging during the Biden years — fighting DOE appliance efficiency standards, opposing gas stove regulations, pushing back on electrification mandates — are being addressed through executive action and regulatory rollback rather than legislation.

At the same time, new threats have emerged from an unexpected direction. The Trump administration's FY2026 budget proposal would eliminate LIHEAP — the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program — which NPGA had consistently lobbied to fund. Propane is disproportionately used by rural, low-income households who rely on LIHEAP for heating assistance. According to Utility Dive, the administration has already moved to cut $378 million in previously approved LIHEAP funding.

Congressional Hearings Addressed Propane-Adjacent Issues

While the National Propane Gas Association lobbying operation was not mentioned by name in any congressional hearing transcripts from the past year, several hearings covered issues central to its agenda. Pipeline safety reauthorization hearings in both chambers featured testimony from allied industry groups. At a hearing on energy infrastructure cybersecurity threats, Rep. Nicholas Langworthy (R-NY-23) specifically advocated for propane as part of energy resilience, stating: "True resilience requires multiple energy pathways, electricity, natural gas, propane, backup generation, and distributed resources so that a single disruption cannot shut down a community."

Energy Secretary nominee Christopher A. Wright highlighted the growth of U.S. propane production during his confirmation hearing in January 2025, noting: "We have quadrupled U.S. propane production. We have gone from the eighth largest exporter to by far and away the largest exporter."

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The Bottom Line

What the New Firms Bring

The shift from a large in-house team to smaller external firms narrows NPGA's registered lobbying footprint considerably. The in-house team at its most recent included Katherine Leigh Gaziano, Benjamin Nussdorf, Michael Kistler Baker, and two newer additions — Lauren A. Medlin and Steven W. Dyke.

Baker, the longest-serving NPGA lobbyist, brought nearly eight years of experience as Chief Clerk of the House Ways and Means Committee — directly relevant to NPGA's tax credit advocacy. Rhett Lee Johnson had a brief stint in Sen. Richard Burr's (R-NC) office, and Andrew John Healey served three years in Sen. Joni Ernst's (R-IA) office before joining NPGA's team.

Smith-Free Group is now handling the tax and appropriations portfolio — the same territory where Baker's Ways and Means experience was most valuable. Ridge Path Strategies has picked up international trade work.

What's missing from the external firm coverage: NPGA's in-house team lobbied on transportation safety, CFATS homeland security compliance, agricultural policy, environmental regulation, consumer safety, and defense. None of those issue areas appear in the external firms' current filings.

NPGA's combined external lobbying spend of roughly $40,000 per quarter is a steep drop from the $150,000-plus it was reporting in-house. Whether the trade association is supplementing that with advocacy that falls below LDA reporting thresholds — or has simply scaled back — isn't clear from the current disclosure records.

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