The House Energy & Commerce Committee has hired three more lobbyists after naming a top Washington lobbyist as Staff Director in December, 2010. The lobbyists have represented a range of companies and industries that all have business before the committee.

Michael Bloomquist will join the committee as the deputy general counsel from his position at the lobbying firm Wiley Rein. Bloomquist was most recently registered as a lobbyist for America’s Natural Gas Alliance, a coalition of independent natural gas exploration and production companies, and Nucor Corp., a giant steel company. Bloomquist previously worked for Energy & Commerce Committee, the Science & Technology Committee, and the Department of Interior before becoming a lobbyist.

The incoming chief counsel to the Subcommittee on Environment and Energy, David McCarthy, comes from a job running the lobbying operation for an alternative energy company, Algenol Biofuels. McCarthy previously served in the same capacity on the committee from 2006 to 2008.

Julie Goon joins the committee as the Senior Health Policy Advisor. Before joining the George W. Bush administration in 2006, Goon worked as a top lobbyist for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the insurance industry’s trade group, and as a public affairs director for the insurance company Humana. Goon most recently worked at General Electric running their healthymagination, a cross-business venture to increase health care innovation and reduce costs and improve quality.

The committee’s new chairman Fred Upton previously announced the hiring of Gary Andres, a major lobbyist in Washington, as the committee’s Staff Director. Andres previously reported lobbying for health care groups including the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform and UnitedHealth Corp., technology titan Google, General Motors, FedEx Corp., HSBC, Union Pacific Corp. and the National Ground Water Association.

The Energy & Commerce Committee is one of the most important committees in the House of Representatives. It was the central House committee during the writing of the health care reform law in 2009 and will likely be at the center of Republican efforts to change, replace, or repeal parts of the now enacted law.

The committee also announced the hiring of two other staff members from outside of Congress: David McCarthy, a white collar defense attorney at Patton Boggs, and John O’Shea, a surgeon and Heritage Foundation fellow.