Jeff Shockey and John Scofield, two veteran appropriations aides and lobbyists, are starting a government relations and public affairs venture called Shockey Scofield Solutions. The new shop will be affiliated with the McChrystal Group, the consulting business of retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Scofield, a one-time communications director for the House Appropriations Committee, most recently has been a principal with the Podesta Group. He said the new duo will focus on the Appropriations Committee but won’t be limited to budget issues and plans to lobby other panels as well.

“Everybody wants to write the obituary of the [Appropriations] Committee, but there are so many issues the Committee is involved in,” Scofield said. “I think we’ve got options across the board.”

Shockey was a longtime aide of the Appropriations panel’s ex-chairman, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), and served as the Committee’s staff director.

Scofield said that for now, he and Shockey want to keep their two-man firm small, “lean and mean.”

Shockey Scofield will rent office space in Alexandria, Va., from the McChrystal Group.

“We will team up with them on clients where it makes sense,” Scofield said.

When McChrystal, the former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, launched his consulting firm at the beginning of the year, he said that his firm would not be lobbying, and he is not registered to lobby.