What Washington Is Really Doing Right Now — A Lobbyist's View

A conversation with Matthew Cutts, Partner, Dentons

The headlines out of Washington tell one story. What's actually happening behind the scenes tells another.

Matthew Cutts is one of Washington's top policy strategists at Dentons, and he spends his days translating the capital for corporations navigating an increasingly consequential political environment. I invited him onto The Friday Reporter because, frankly, I wanted to hear from someone who's in the rooms — someone who can tell us what smart people are missing and where the real action is headed.

This is that conversation.

The most hopeful thing about Washington that nobody reports

I opened by asking Matthew what most people still misunderstand about D.C. His answer was more optimistic than I expected.

"There's just so much work still happening behind the scenes. Committees are meeting. There are hearings. Chairmen are positioning — even for next year. They're doing listening sessions. This is the kind of ground game that bubbles up and you see it eventually, but there's a lot that happens quietly, out of sight from companies and businesses."

The news cycle, he argued, systematically underreports the constructive, grinding work of governance in favor of the combative and dramatic. That's important context for any executive trying to read Washington from the outside.

CEOs can no longer afford to ignore Washington

Something has shifted in how corporate America engages with government — and it happened fast.

"It's hard to be the CEO of almost any company and not wonder what's happening in Washington. There was a time not too long ago where CEOs were worried about their core business, their widget, their shareholders. But now this administration has shown it can have such an immediate impact on a company's bottom line."

The response, Matthew said, has been a move from reactive to proactive. Companies that used to absorb policy changes are now trying to get ahead of them — not necessarily to change outcomes, but to be better prepared and adapt faster when changes come.

Washington, he noted, is "a new factor" in corporate decision-making. Not the only factor, but one that can no longer be outsourced to a clipping service.

Where bipartisan agreement still exists

Despite the polarization, Matthew identified two areas where both parties are still finding common ground.

The first is tax. "Tax tends to be less partisan. If there's a provision that leans toward one party's ideology, you can pair it with something that lines up with the other — and stitch together a package that's relatively bipartisan. That's tried and true."

The second, more surprisingly, is AI. "The technology is developing and the thought of regulating it is almost developing faster than the parties can figure out their ideologies. It creates this swirl where the far right is easily lining up with the far left." State rights arguments, privacy advocates, child safety concerns — they're all pulling in directions that don't map neatly onto traditional partisan lines.

And then there's crypto. "Market structure and crypto are moving right now," Matthew said. "We know how to regulate financial instruments, but this is a new and different one. Getting the framework right will keep the U.S. in a lead position."

Political retaliation is now part of the risk calculus

This was the part of our conversation that stopped me. I asked Matthew how much his clients factor in not just regulation but the possibility of political retaliation — and his answer was direct.

"We're advising them to make decisions today that they don't have to worry about retaliation in the future. It's definitely top of mind."

He pointed out that even something as procedural as a congressional oversight request — no accusation of wrongdoing, just a company's name appearing in the mix — can be disruptive. It can leak. It can move stock prices. It can shake confidence.

"I remember writing strategies for corporate clients about how to be ready if there's a tweet about the company. Now it's not just a tweet. It's about what kind of impact it can have."

The lesson: prepare before you're in the story, not after.

Is Congress fundamentally different than it was a decade ago?

Matthew's answer was nuanced and I found it genuinely reassuring. At the office-to-office level — the actual work of explaining an issue, walking through a proposed solution — he said it feels similar to how it always did.

"When we're in these offices, if I ask someone on one side who on the other side they'd be inclined to work with on this issue, they usually have three or four names. Ten years ago they'd have had nine or ten — but it's rare for someone to say no one."

The difference is at the macro level. The institution feels more combative from the outside. The slim margins make everything harder. But the human infrastructure — staffers who know each other, who recognize that bipartisan solutions stick better — that hasn't disappeared.

"I don't know if both can be true, but that's my answer."

What lobbying actually is

I asked Matthew to correct the biggest misconception people have about his profession.

"Rarely do people come to me to get a member to do something they were going to do anyway. We're usually hired to find a member whose support they don't have naturally and convince them. There's a lot more advocacy — thoughtful advocacy — that has to happen. If they had the votes, they wouldn't hire us."

It's more sophisticated than people appreciate, he said simply. And he's right.

Optimist or pessimist?

I closed by asking Matthew where he lands on Washington right now. Without hesitation: optimist.

"I acknowledge there are lots of reasons to be pessimistic. But you can't start every day like that. Hope springs eternal. I have confidence in the institutions."

Put him down as a blind optimist, he said. I'd argue it's the only way to do this work — and keep doing it well.

The Friday Reporter is hosted by Lisa Camooso Miller. New conversations every week with the people shaping politics, media, policy and public life. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and on Substack.