John P Olinger

John Peter Olinger, Senior Vice President of Downey McGrath Group, Inc., advises clients on health, trade, environmental and social welfare policy as well as the development and implementation of grassroots advocacy strategies. Drawing on his Congressional staff experience, John has successfully represented the Healthcare Association of New York State, the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the National Association of Community Health Centers in legislative and regulatory Medicare and Medicaid issues. John led the Downey McGrath team in our successful campaign on behalf of Fuji Photo Film USA in its trade dispute with Kodak. He organized Fujifilm's employee advocacy program that brought local facility employees to Washington to meet with their Senators and Representatives. He organized DuPont's effort to reach out to the international hunger and development community to build support for the introduction of genetically modified organisms. He assisted Philip Brothers Chemicals in removing Japanese restrictions on an animal pharmaceutical product vital to the poultry industry and secured numerous appropriations for further research on the use of the product in wildlife population control. John worked for Congressman Tom Downey from 1984 to 1993 as press secretary, chief of staff and staff director of the Subcommittee on Human Services of the House Select Committee on Aging. He worked on the Omnibus Trade Act of 1988, the U.S.- Israel Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.- Canada Free Trade Agreement, the Caribbean Basin Initiative and the Generalized System of Preferences. John worked closely with the motion picture, publishing and recording industries in the drafting and passage of the Special 301 provision expanding intellectual property protection. He also worked on special tariff legislation affecting textiles and apparel, artistic goods and electronic transmission equipment. In 1992, John was a member of the Health and Human Services Clinton/Gore transition team. In 1996 and 2000, he was a member of the debate preparation team for Vice President Al Gore. During 2003 and 2004, John acted as a trade policy advisor to the presidential campaign of Governor Howard Dean.