--- alias: - Robert E. Cramer - Robert E. Cramer Jr. - Robert E. (Bud) Cramer - Robert Cramer - Bud Cramer category: People created: 2026-10-04 location: Huntsville, Alabama relations: - end: 2009-01-03 fn: 1 role: Democratic Representative from Alabama's 5th District, nine terms (102nd through 110th Congresses) start: 1991-01-03 type: member_of with: '[[United States House of Representatives]]' - fn: 2 role: member of the board of directors, announced December 21, 2015; named as a director and defendant in the second amended complaint in Berry v. Bailey filed August 21, 2024 start: 2015-12-21 type: director_of with: '[[Radiance Technologies]]' - fn: 3 role: named as lobbyist on the registrations and quarterly reports of 535 Group, LLC filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act from 2021 through 2026 start: 2021 type: employed_by with: '[[535 Group]]' - fn: 3 role: lobbyist on 535 Group filings for Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, issue areas Defense, Budget/Appropriations and Taxation, 2021 to 2026 start: 2021 type: represented with: '[[Northrop Grumman]]' - end: 2025 fn: 3 role: lobbyist on 535 Group filings, issue areas Defense, Budget/Appropriations, Aerospace and Transportation start: 2021 type: represented with: '[[United Launch Alliance]]' - fn: 3 role: lobbyist on 535 Group filings, issue areas Homeland Security, Defense, Budget/Appropriations and Aviation, 2023 to 2026 start: 2023 type: represented with: '[[Leidos]]' - end: 2022 fn: 3 role: listed as lobbyist on the 535 Group registration for the client filed in the fourth quarter of 2022 (issue areas Defense, Budget/Appropriations and Small Business); the client's reports from 2023 through the second quarter of 2026 list a different 535 Group lobbyist start: 2022 type: represented with: '[[Technology Service Corporation]]' - end: 2023 fn: 3 role: lobbyist on 535 Group filings, issue areas Defense, Budget/Appropriations and Aerospace start: 2021 type: represented with: '[[Maxar Technologies]]' - fn: 3 role: lobbyist on 535 Group filings, issue areas Defense and Budget/Appropriations, 2025 to 2026 start: 2025 type: represented with: '[[Capstone Research Corporation]]' - fn: 3 role: lobbyist on 535 Group filings, 2021 to 2026 start: 2021 type: represented with: '[[Huntsville-Madison County Airport Authority]]' - end: 2025 fn: 3 role: lobbyist on 535 Group filings for the client listed as HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology start: 2021 type: represented with: '[[HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology]]' - end: 2025-09-18 fn: 4 role: named defendant as a Radiance director in Berry v. Bailey, No. 5:24-cv-00522 (N.D. Ala.); all claims dismissed without prejudice September 18, 2025 start: 2024-04-25 type: defendant_in with: '[[Berry v. Bailey]]' summary: Democratic member of the House from Alabama's 5th District from 1991 to 2009, Radiance Technologies director from December 2015, and a lobbyist listed on 535 Group filings; a defendant in Berry v. Bailey. tags: - Person - Congress - Lobbyist - HuntsvilleAlabama - DefenseContractor - CorporateDirector - Radiance updated: 2026-10-04 --- Robert E. "Bud" Cramer Jr. was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on August 22, 1947. The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress lists a B.A. from the University of Alabama (1969) and a J.D. from the University of Alabama Law School (1972), service in the [United States Army](/organizations/us-army/) in 1972 and the United States Army Reserve from 1976 to 1978, work as an assistant district attorney of Madison County, Alabama (1973 to 1975), private law practice, and service as district attorney of Madison County from 1981 to 1990.[^1] ### House of Representatives, 1991 to 2009 The Biographical Directory records that Cramer was "elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Second and to the eight succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1991-January 3, 2009)" and "was not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Eleventh Congress in 2008." Each of the nine terms was for Alabama's 5th Congressional District.[^1] ### Radiance Technologies board, from December 2015 On December 21, 2015 [Radiance Technologies](/organizations/radiance-technologies/) posted an AL.com article under the headline "Former Congressman Bud Cramer joins Radiance board of directors." The article states that Cramer "has joined the board of directors at Radiance Technologies," that he "retired in 2008 after serving nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Huntsville and north Alabama" and that he "is now working as a lobbyist in Washington." The article's photograph caption describes a December 4, 2015 ceremony at which Cramer "donated $50,000 to UAH to help store and preserve his documents from his time in Congress" (University of Alabama in Huntsville). [Bill Bailey](/people/bill-bailey/), then president of Radiance, is quoted: "We could not be more proud to have Congressman Cramer joining the Radiance team. His experience in Washington and his insight will be a tremendous asset for our customers and our future growth." The article gives Cramer's statement: "Radiance Technologies has grown over the last 15 years to become one of the most respected aerospace and defense technology firms in the country and I am proud to join their team."[^2] ### 535 Group lobbying filings Reports filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act by 535 Group, LLC, registered as "Government Relations Consulting" in [Washington, D.C.](/places/washington-dc/), name Robert Cramer as a lobbyist. He is named as a lobbyist on the registrations and reports of the following clients, with the years of those filings and the general issue areas reported: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (2021 to 2026; Defense, Budget/Appropriations, Taxation); United Launch Alliance (2021 to 2025; Defense, Budget/Appropriations, Aerospace, Transportation); Leidos (2023 to 2026; Homeland Security, Defense, Budget/Appropriations, Aviation); Technology Service Corporation (registration filed in the fourth quarter of 2022 only; Defense, Budget/Appropriations, Small Business; the client's later reports from 2023 through 2026 list another 535 Group lobbyist); Maxar Technologies (2021 to 2023; Defense, Budget/Appropriations, Aerospace); Capstone Research Corporation (2025 to 2026; Defense, Budget/Appropriations); Hawkeye 360, through Reston Strategy Group, LLC (2021 to 2023; Defense, Budget/Appropriations); the MSPs for the Protection of Critical Infrastructure, "The Collective" (2023 to 2025; Computer Industry, Defense, Budget/Appropriations); the Boy Scouts of America (2021 to 2022; Bankruptcy, Budget/Appropriations); the City of Huntsville (2021 to 2026); the Huntsville-Madison County Airport Authority (2021 to 2026); Huntsville Hospital Health System (2021 to 2026); the Solid Waste Disposal Authority of the City of Huntsville (2021 to 2026); and the HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology (2021 to 2025).[^3] ### Berry v. Bailey Cramer is the first of the directors listed in paragraph 8 of the second amended verified complaint in Berry v. Bailey, (Doc. 33, filed August 21, 2024) by five former Radiance employees in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (removed April 25, 2024 from the Madison County Circuit Court). Paragraph 8(a) pleads: "Cramer who is an adult resident of Madison County, Alabama." The complaint does not describe him as an employee of Radiance, as it does Jim Scanlon, Jed Deason and Carol Tevepaugh. It alleges that the board, which it defines to include Cramer, "voted to table the sale" of Radiance after receiving about 14 offers, that five of them were "in a range of two times (2X) the ESOP's last appraised value" and "approximately two hundred fifty million dollars ($250,000,000)," that Bailey "required individuals who did have knowledge of the offers, including the BOD members, to sign non-disclosure agreements," and that the board members "did no due diligence" on Bailey's representations. Count II pleads a direct state-law breach of fiduciary duty against the board members, Count IV the derivative counterpart, and Count VII a claim under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. These are the plaintiffs' allegations.[^4] Corey L. Maze, the presiding judge, dismissed the state-law claims for lack of standing (direct claims) or ERISA preemption (derivative claims) and the ERISA claims for failure to exhaust the plan's claims procedure, and dismissed all claims without prejudice on September 18, 2025, without a ruling on the facts alleged.[^5] [^1]: "CRAMER, Robert E. (Bud), Jr.," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, bioguide.congress.gov (identifier C000868), Wayback Machine capture of 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/2015/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000868 ; term dates (nine terms, Alabama 5th District, January 3, 1991 to January 3, 2009) from the Biographical Directory data as compiled in the congress-legislators dataset, https://unitedstates.github.io/congress-legislators/legislators-historical.json [^2]: "Former Congressman Bud Cramer joins Radiance board of directors," Radiance Technologies, December 21, 2015 (reprinting AL.com), Wayback Machine capture of February 6, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160206090857/https://www.radiancetech.com/former-congressman-bud-cramer-joins-huntsville-technology-company/ [^3]: Senate Office of Public Records and House Clerk lobbying disclosure filings (Lobbying Disclosure Act), registrant 535 GROUP, LLC (registrant identifier 401105906), registrations and quarterly reports 2021 to 2026, lobbyist listing, client names and general issue areas, retrieved through the lda.gov filings API on October 4, 2026. https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?registrant_name=535+Group [^4]: Berry v. Bailey, No. 5:24-cv-00522-CLM (N.D. Ala.), Doc. 33 (second amended verified complaint, filed August 21, 2024), caption and paragraphs 8, 9, 20 to 22, 26 to 30, counts II, IV and VII. https://archive.org/download/gov.uscourts.alnd.189482/gov.uscourts.alnd.189482.33.0.pdf [^5]: Berry v. Bailey, No. 5:24-cv-00522-CLM, Doc. 68, Memorandum Opinion (September 18, 2025) and Doc. 69, order of dismissal without prejudice. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-alnd-5_24-cv-00522/pdf/USCOURTS-alnd-5_24-cv-00522-0.pdf