Sally Katzen, a former deputy director at the White House budget office during the Clinton administration, has been retained to help the embattled biotech lobby the federal government on Medicare coverage and reimbursement, according to a disclosure posted online Tuesday by the Senate’s public records office, the Associated Press reports.

The move comes as Amgen is in the thick of a fight to convince the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid to reverse a new coverage decision, or NCD, that reduces reimbursement for its biggest meds - the Aranesp and Epogen anemia fighters. The biotech, which claims the new guidelines could hurt cancer patients, has had some success with its lobbying. Members of both the House and Senate have sent letters to Medicare and introduced bills to roll back the decision. Whether Amgen will prevail is unclear, but one analyst, Jim Birchenough of Lehman Brothers, wrote in an investor note yesterday that he believes CMS is “very sensitive to transfusion issues and will open a reconsideration of the NCD.”

That’s where Katzen comes in. For those unfamilar with her background, the AP points out that Katzen has been teaching law at several universities, also served as deputy assistant to President Clinton for economy policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council. She worked in the Carter administration, too.