Morris J. Amitay

Morris (“Morrie”) Amitay has nearly forty years of Washington experience representing a range of large and small corporations and interest groups involved in a wide variety of issues requiring Congressional support. These included primarily national and homeland security issues, as well as energy, health, and other issues in earlier years. He has been described by the Washington Magazine as an “insider and heavy hitter” with close connections in Congress and the Administration. A 2006 Washington Post article on Amitay’s activities on Capitol Hill stated, “Even among his peers his success is something of a legend.”  

Located on Capitol Hill, his firm has an excellent track record of achieving tangible results for its clients. Recently, Amitay has collaborated with his attorney/lobbyist son, Steve, who runs his own consulting firm, on getting compensation for victims of terrorism, helping secure billions of dollars of payouts by terrorist-sponsoring nations.  

A former Foreign Service Officer and senior U.S. Senate aide, at the end of 1974 Amitay assumed the position of Executive Director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). During his six-year tenure he built AIPAC into an organization described by the New York Times at the time as “the most powerful, best-run, and effective foreign policy interest group in Washington”.  

In 1981, Amitay (Columbia B.A., Harvard J.D. and M.P.A.), entered the private sector to establish his law/lobbying firm located on Capitol Hill.  The firm’s clients over the years have included the American Petroleum Institute, BAE Systems Elbit, General Dynamics, Israel Aerospace Industries, the Northrop-Grumman Corporation, and the Solar Energy Industry Association. Amitay maintains his strong ties with key members of the major Congressional oversight and spending committees, and with the top leadership of both major political parties.  

Amitay’s expertise and advice on various security issues have frequently been sought by both Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates.  He has addressed audiences at the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Enterprise Institute, the U.S. Naval Academy, and leading universities on national security issues and the political process in Washington.  Amitay has been quoted often in national and international print, along with TV media, including CNN, Fox News, NPR, BBC, and VOA.  Amitay is Founder and Treasurer of the pro-Israel Washington Political Action Committee, which during the past 35 years has contributed more than four million dollars to Congressional candidates on a bipartisan basis. Amitay serves on the Advisory Board of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and has served on the boards of other Washington-based think tanks.