Christopher J. Armstrong

Christopher Armstrong is a Washington, D.C., attorney and a member of Holland & Knight's Public Policy & Regulation Group. Mr. Armstrong is a co-leader of the group's Congressional Investigations Team. His practice focuses on representing a broad range of companies, nonprofit entities and individuals through congressional investigations and oversight hearings involving significant legal, regulatory and political risk. Mr. Armstrong also provides counsel regarding risk and crisis management, congressional procedure, tax and healthcare matters.

Congressional Investigations

Mr. Armstrong has significant experience working in government, including nearly a dozen years on the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means. He most recently served as general counsel and chief oversight counsel to the Finance Committee under Chair Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). In this role, Mr. Armstrong led the committee's oversight and investigations activities and advised the chair and committee members regarding Senate rules and procedure. Mr. Armstrong also previously served as investigative counsel for the committee under then-Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who is now the chair of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In this role, Mr. Armstrong served as lead counsel on several high-profile investigations within the tax-exempt, pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. In the House, Mr. Armstrong conducted congressional investigations for Chair Dave Camp (R-Mich.) on the Ways and Means Committee. This work included leading investigations across the committee's jurisdiction, including sensitive tax-related investigations, oversight of government contractors and inquiries related to government whistleblowers.

At Holland & Knight, Mr. Armstrong has counseled clients through investigations by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Committee on Education and the Workforce, Committee on Financial Services, Committee on Ethics, Committee on the Judiciary, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Committee on Ways and Means, as well as the U.S. Senate's Committee on Finance, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Committee on the Judiciary, and Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, as well as inquiries by individual senators. These have included matters involving significant document requests, subpoenas, transcribed interviews and hearing preparation, as well as parallel executive branch investigations.

Mr. Armstrong currently serves as co-chair of the American Bar Association's Legislative Process and Congressional Investigations Committee. He has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Axios, Roll Call, Politico, Bloomberg, Law360 and other leading publications on congressional oversight and investigation matters.

Public Policy

As a senior counsel to the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Armstrong worked closely with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, IRS, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and congressional offices on a wide range of policy matters, including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He also served as one of the lead drafters of the Taxpayer Protection Act of 2016 and Taxpayer First Act of 2018, which was enacted into law as the Taxpayer Protection Act of 2019, as well as for transparency provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

While on the staff of the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Armstrong worked closely with the tax and health policy teams on a broad range of matters, including the ACA provisions and the Tax Reform Act of 2014. He also was the lead attorney on numerous hearings and legislation concerning the IRS and tax administration.

While serving on the Senate Finance Committee, Mr. Armstrong advised the chairman and nominees as lead counsel during the confirmation process for nominees to the Treasury Department, IRS, HHS and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).

Early in his career, Mr. Armstrong was an attorney for the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), where he investigated allegations of Whistleblower Protection Act and Hatch Act violations. In addition, he devised prosecution strategy and produced legal opinions for OSC prosecutors and various Inspectors General.