Trump Takes Action Against DC Lobbyists; Critics Raise Questions
The transition team of President-elect Donald Trump announced rules Wednesday expected to crimp the influence of lobbyists in the Trump administration and beyond, but critics say they don't expect them to have much bite.
In a post on his Facebook page Thursday, Trump highlighted six actions he expects to take to limit "corruption in Washington" during his first 100 days in office. They include at least three specifically targeting lobbyists: a five-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists, a permanent ban on foreign government lobbying by White House officials and a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
The other three actions are: term limits for Congress, a federal hiring freeze and the elimination of two regulations for every new regulation instituted.
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"It goes back to Trump's goal to make sure people aren't using government to enrich themselves," transition spokesman Sean Spicer said on a call with reporters according to The Washington Post. "The key thing for this administration is going to be that people going out of government won't be able to use that service to enrich themselves for a five-year period."
The announcement was made just days after Trump was criticized for including lobbyists on his transition team after pledging to voters he would "drain the swamp" and keep special interests out of Washington.
Trumps transition team said every person who joins the administration will be asked to sign a lobbying ban form that states they are not a registered lobbyist. If they are, they will have to provide evidence of their termination, said the Post.
Some critics like The Intercept's Jon Schwarz think the announcement however was "largely meaningless."
"This is nice, but largely meaningless, especially given the rest of Trump's actions. It's like draining a tiny corner of the Everglades even as you ship in thousands more alligators and anacondas to wallow in the rest of it," Schwarz wrote Thursday.
"Most importantly, as the richest president-elect in history, Trump has shown no interest in addressing the gigantic, never-before-seen conflict of interest of his own business empire. Literally everything he does as president could have some effect on his personal wealth," he noted.
Schwarz argued that Trump could demonstrate his commitment to change in Washington by establishing a "true blind trust."
"A true blind trust would mean that Trump would have to appoint an independent trustee, with no connections at all to Trump or his family, who would then sell all of Trump's assets and use the proceeds to make other investments that Trump knew nothing about. Every president for four decades has done this or simply held the kind of publicly-disclosed, widely-diversified investments that an independent trustee would choose anyway," Schwarz wrote.
"This matters because, as anyone knows who's ever worked in any human organization, corruption at the top inevitably cascades downwards. If the most powerful people refuse to pay any price themselves, those further down the ladder will inevitably take their cue from this no matter what piece of paper they sign," he added.
David Donnelly CEO for the public interest organization Every Voice called the new policy "a delayed payday for lobbyists."
"This is a policy that sounds good on paper but won't accomplish a whole lot in practice. People want policies that'll make government listen to them, not just a delayed payday for lobbyists," Donnelly said in a statement.
"For democracy to work for all Americans, President-elect Trump must ensure that our democracy and our government welcomes all people. He must demonstrate that with words, actions, and policies that are bigger than simply deciding the jobs people can have after leaving the White House," he noted.
The Washington Post noted that people may already be skirting Trump's lobbyist ban pointing to Josh Pitcock, a close aide to Vice-president elect Mike Pence who is a Washington lobbyist.
Pitcock reportedly filed paperwork with the Senate on Monday to terminate his status as a federal lobbyist. He advised Pence during the presidential campaign, and has lobbied for the state of Indiana since 2013, earning $280,000 a year to lobby on a wide range of issues including health-care marketplace exchange rates and resources for the state's response to the Zika virus, lobbying records show, according to the Post.
