Bill, Melinda Gates launch lobbying group

Bill and Melinda Gates have launched the Gates Policy Initiative to lobby for issues the billionaire couple has been working on through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Hill first reported.

The initiative will be focused on global health, global development, U.S. education and outcomes for black, Latino and rural students specifically, and efforts to move people from poverty to employment.

Rob Nabors, former White House director of legislative affairs under President Obama, is the executive director of the 501(c)(4) initiative. He currently serves as a director at the Gates Foundation.

“Bill and Melinda have been interested in improving the outcome of the poorest in society both here in the United States and abroad for a very long time,” Nabors told The Hill. “I think recently Bill and Melinda have asked the question, ‘Is there more that we can be doing, especially here in the United States?'”

Nabors said the group plans to work in a bipartisan way and avoid political giving.

“Bill and Melinda have a long history of engaging the executive branch, the legislative branch, in a bipartisan way, I don’t see that changing,” Nabors said.

Bill and Melinda Gates officially launched the initiative, which is fully independent of their foundation, on Thursday.