DHS duo lands in D.C. lobbying circuit

DHS duo lands in D.C. lobbying circuit    Asa Hutchinson, under secretary of border and transportation security who left his post as the number three man in the Department of Homeland Security Tuesday, has joined Venable LLP and will head the law firm’s homeland security practice.
   Stewart Verdery, Hutchinson’s top lieutenant and assistant secretary for border and transportation security policy and planning, will join government relations firm of Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti Inc., the one-year-old company said.
   Today is Vedery’s last day at DHS, where he helped Hutchinson set the department’s direction for cargo, passenger and immigration security policies and coordinated work of the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
   Verdery said in February he would follow his boss out of DHS after almost two years on the job. No replacements have been named for Hutchinson or Vedery. The post of assistant secretary within BTS will no longer exist in its current form if a Bush administration proposal to create a department-wide policy, planning and international affairs office that reports directly to the deputy secretary is implemented by new Secretary Michael Chertoff. The position will encompass a wider range of responsibilities and be transferred the secretary’s office.
   Venable said Hutchinson will split time between the firm’s Washington office and Little Rock, Ark. Hutchinson is believed to be interested in making a possible run at governor of Arkansas in 2006.