NEWS

Mehlman Consulting has hired a top aide to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the chair of two key subcommittees with jurisdiction over tech issues and one of the architects of last year’s kids online safety bill. Jon Adame is joining the firm after spending the past seven years in Blackburn’s office, including serving as her chief of staff since 2023.

Adame said in an interview that he first met Bruce Mehlman, the firm’s founder, while working on a Blackburn-led tech task force under the Senate Judiciary Committee, adding that there are “a lot of synergies” in the tech policy work he’d been doing on the Hill and the work Mehlman does for its clients.

The firm represents organizations like Adobe, IBM, Texas Instruments, the Information Technology Industry Council, Netflix, the Semiconductor Technology Leadership Council and the Technology CEO Council. Blackburn is now the chair of Senate Judiciary’s Privacy, Technology and Law Subcommittee as well as the Senate Commerce Consumer Protection, Technology and Data Privacy Subcommittee. In a statement provided by the firm, Blackburn called Adame an “invaluable” adviser and lauded his “deep policy expertise and sharp political acumen.”

In addition to tech issues, Adame told PI he expects to do some trade lobbying. “Since we’ve come to the Senate, we’ve had a lot to deal with on the tariff space, and it’s uniquely affected a lot of Tennessee businesses,” he said. “So I’ve had a lot of hands-on experience tackling those challenges.” And “with everything going on with tax reform, I think everybody does tax this year,” he quipped.