Kroger hires former House Speaker Boehner to push for approval of proposed merger with Albertsons

Former House Speaker John Boehner, (R-Ohio) has reportedly been hired to help Kroger win approval of its proposed $25 billion merger with Albertsons, according to a report in The Hill.

Boehner, who is employed by Squire Patton Boggs, a law and lobbying company, will “provide strategic counsel” to Kroger executives and won’t register to lobby, the report said, noting that Squire Patton Boggs’ Tommy Andrews and David Schnittger, two former Boehner aides, and Caren Street, former chief of staff to then-Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) and executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, will lobby on Kroger’s behalf.  

Opposition about the proposed merger has come from unions representing more than 100,000 Kroger and Albertsons workers, who argue that the merger would cause job losses and increases in prices, as well as from Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), the top lawmakers on the Senate’s antitrust panel, who in November grilled the CEOs of both supermarket chains. 

[Read more: Kroger, Albertsons reportedly moving forward on plans to divest stores]

The report also noted that The Federal Trade Commission, headed by Lina Khan, a fierce opponent of corporate consolidation, is reviewing the merger and is widely expected to sue to block it.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote a letter to Khan in October, in which they stated, "Given the parties’ records of raising food prices for consumers and cutting benefits to workers to pad their own profits, and the unusual circumstances of a $4 billion dividend payment that will be paid out by Albertsons in early November, the FTC should oppose this proposed merger,” the report said.

The report said that according to OpenSecrets, Kroger shelled out $950,000 on lobbying in 2022, the highest total in the company’s history.  Albertsons, which contracts with Jeff Miller, the lobbyist with the closest ties to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), spent $2.2 million on lobbying in 2022, more than tripling the previous year’s total, the report added.

[Read more: Kroger to acquire Albertsons for $24.6B]

Punchbowl News first reported the news of Boehner’s hiring Thursday.