If your organization received significant federal funding in 2025 or 2026, start preparing now for the questions coming in 2027 and 2028. Since January 2025, this administration has handed out federal contracts, awards, and grants with less oversight than any before it, of either party. Organizations moved fast and asked few questions. That era is ending, and the accounting is about to begin. Democrats have said plainly they learned from the first term of this administratio

I'm excited to continue growing Headwind Strategies, and was reminded recently why I started the firm in the first place. A mentor of mine years ago pointed out that I'm a generalist, a rare specialty in and of itself. My career has spanned Congress, the State House, City Hall, and K Street, along with campaigns at every level. Headwind Strategies is the outlet I built to put all of it to work for clients. The Advice That Reframed My Career That mentor caught me at a moment

By Ryan Mann, Headwind Strategies The calendar says Congress has time. The calendar is wrong. On paper, the House of Representatives will be in session roughly 44 more days before the end of 2026. The Senate, a little over 50. Those numbers sound workable until you account for what the schedule actually looks like: members flying in Monday afternoon, casting their first votes Monday evening, and boarding flights home Thursday after early afternoon votes. Strip out the trave

Most organizations lobby Congress wrong. Ryan Mann breaks down why staff relationships, not member access, are where issues actually get won.

There is a particular kind of confidence that comes with building something from nothing. You set a goal, you put in the work, you forge ahead and figure it out. It is the engine behind most of the best executives I have ever encountered. It is also, if left unchecked, the thing most likely to get them in serious trouble the moment they step into the political, policy, and public arena. I have spent nearly twenty years moving through the rooms where political and policy decis

Every organization has a version of the same meeting. The project is almost fully baked. The team is confident. The product is ready to launch. And then someone in the room asks, almost without irony, how they get in front of decision-makers to get their approval. Approval, funding, and support is assumed, and how could it not be with such a strong product? Raising the need to engage government officials or regulatory bodies feels akin to asking who's going to clean up after