Washington — Delta Air Lines has put together a heavyweight team of lobbying and law firms to help clear the way for its proposed merger with Northwest.

Top executives from both airlines are to launch their campaign in Washington next week by testifying before two Senate hearings.

SUZI ALTMAN/Bloomberg News (ENLARGE)

Republican Trent Lott, who recently resigned from a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi to pursue private opportunities, has a big one now, lobbying for Delta Air Lines as it seeks approval of its merger with Northwest Airlines.

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But behind the scenes, Delta has recently hired Washington insiders and former top officials for the dual tasks of winning over Congress and the Justice Department's anti-trust office.

Among those lined up are two of the best known former lawmakers in the lobbying world — Trent Lott of Mississippi, who until recently was the second highest-ranking Republican senator, and his new lobbying partner, former Democratic Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana.

Also just signed up by Delta is Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti Inc., a firm packed with former senior staffers from Capitol Hill and the Bush administration. The company's lobbying registration form, filed weeks before the merger plan was announced, said they would lobby on "airline industry consolidation and competitiveness."

To steer the merger through the regulatory obstacles, Delta's top executives told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week, they have hired R. Hewitt Pate, who ran the anti-trust division at the U.S. Justice Department from 2003 to 2005. Pate now heads the "global competition" practice for the Hunton & Williams law firm.

In addition, Delta's leaders said they have brought in leading anti-trust lawyer Donald L. Fexner of the firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP.

The expanded team, joining Delta's veteran in-house lobbyist Donald Yohe, will need to convince the Justice Department that the joining of the two airlines won't produce a monopoly, since the two companies generally serve different regions.

On Capitol Hill, their job will be to demonstrate that the public won't suffer and that the merger is critical to the survival and prosperity of both airlines during a period of soaring fuel costs and a sagging economy.

The biggest obstacle in sight is the outspoken opposition of Rep. James Oberstar, the Minnesota Democrat who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Although Congress has no direct role in the merger decision, Oberstar has pledged to press the Justice Department for "vigorous scrutiny" of the plan, which would locate the new airline headquarters in Atlanta. Northwest is now based in Minneapolis.

Northwest's vice president for corporate communications, Tammy Lee, approached the question of Oberstar's objections with care.

"We are now beginning the public education process," she said. "Lawmakers will need to understand that we are operating in a very different environment with oil at $114 a barrel. The old model doesn't work."

She added that a combined airline would provide more assurance that service to small communities would continue.

Asked if Oberstar would likely be persuaded, she said, "I don't know if I want to comment on that."