Elizabeth Leoty Craddock
Partner
Overview
Elizabeth "Liz" Leoty Craddock helps companies, industry organizations and trade associations turn complex federal policy objectives into actionable Washington strategies. A government relations attorney and strategic policy advisor with more than three decades of experience in Congress, industry and private practice, Liz advises on legislative, appropriations and regulatory matters involving energy, natural resources, agriculture and food, infrastructure, maritime, mining and environmental policy. She also helps clients advance legislation, secure federal funding, protect industry priorities and respond strategically to changes in Congress and the executive branch.
Liz helps clients anticipate shifts in Congress and the federal government, assess policy risks and opportunities, build effective coalitions and move complex initiatives from strategy through execution. Her work includes advancing legislation, protecting industry priorities, pursuing federal funding and positioning organizations for changes in congressional and administration agendas.
Liz brings firsthand knowledge of how federal legislation is developed, negotiated and enacted. Before entering private practice, she served as staff director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and as legislative director and counsel to former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). She has worked with Democratic and Republican congressional leadership, Cabinet and White House officials, federal agencies, corporate executives and national and international trade associations.
Additionally, Liz is co-leader of Holland & Knight's Agriculture & Food Policy Team. Her policy work and thought leadership address congressional permitting reform, nuclear energy development and regulation, offshore wind, and oil and gas policy. She also serves as lead section partner for Public and Charitable Service, overseeing the Government Section's pro bono, community service and philanthropic initiatives.
Before joining Holland & Knight, Liz served as Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staff director and helped secure bicameral passage of a package of more than 80 public lands bills that ultimately became law through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2015. She also played a key role in advancing the bipartisan Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States (RESTORE) Act and Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA), measures that directed billions of dollars to Gulf Coast restoration, conservation and related priorities.
Liz's private sector experience also includes leading the Washington office of an international oil and gas industry association, where she developed state and federal advocacy strategies and represented industry priorities before Congress and federal agencies.
How Liz Helps Clients
- Develop and execute congressional and federal agency strategies
- Position companies and industries for changes in administrations and congressional leadership
- Advance, modify or stop legislation affecting client business interests
- Navigate appropriations and federal funding opportunities
- Build bipartisan coalitions around difficult policy objectives
- Translate political and regulatory developments into actionable business strategy
- Negotiate legislative language and complex congressional procedural agreements
Representative Experience
- As staff director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, led the effort to secure committee approval of nine nominations; four received bipartisan confirmation, including two commissioners of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and an assistant secretary of the interior
- Worked with the U.S. Department of the Interior regarding a funding issue blocking the advancement of Poverty Point in Louisiana as a World Heritage Site; efforts helped lead to the final approval and establishment of Poverty Point as one of only 22 UNESCO sites in the United States
- Helped spearheaded Senate passage of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014, which prevented the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) flood insurance rate hikes, protecting millions who live along U.S. coasts
- Traveled with former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz to Louisiana's Port Fourchon and Port of Iberia to examine the work of the nation's energy ports and the immense value that they bring to the United States
- Assisted Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain to secure $752 million in relief money for farmers as part of the Agriculture Disaster Supplemental included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, after assessment of the damage to Louisiana's agriculture industry from natural disasters in 2008
- Over the span of nearly 10 years, helped former Sen. Landrieu secure hundreds of interior, energy, water and agriculture earmarks and appropriations language that helped provide needed funds and programs for Louisiana's universities, rural communities and parishes
Credentials
- Tulane University Law School, J.D.
- University of Florida, B.S., Public Relations
- University of Florida, B.A., Political Science
- District of Columbia
- Junior League of Washington, D.C.
