It's Time To Tighten Ethics Laws To Ensure Integrity And Fairness In Public Policy
A Matter of Trust
How The Revolving Door Undermines Public Confidence In Government, and What To Do About It
For too long now, the American public has looked on in despair or resignation as private corporations shape public policies to advance the interests of their industry, often at the expense of the common good. While generous campaign contributions have proven a tried and true means for companies to buy influence with policy makers, it's time to shine a bright light on The Revolving Door, another key mechanism by which corporate interests influence federal decision-making, especially with regard to regulatory policy and procurement choices. The Revolving Door — the movement of individuals back and forth between the private sector and the public sector — takes three forms:
- The Industry-to-Government Revolving Door, through which the appointment of corporate executives and business lobbyists to key posts in federal agencies establishes a pro-business bias in policy formulation and regulatory enforcement;
- The Government-to-Industry Revolving Door, through which public officials move to lucrative private sector roles from which they may use their experience to compromise government procurement, regulatory policy and the public interest; and
- The Government-to-Lobbyist Revolving Door, through which former lawmakers and executive-branch officials use their inside connections to advance the interests of corporate clients.
While some observers argue that such movement between regulatory roles and regulated industries ensures that policymakers bring expertise and understanding to their oversight functions, there is ample evidence to suggest that the revolving door more often creates at least the appearance of serious conflict of interest.
The Revolving Door Working Group (RDWG) investigates, exposes and seeks remedies for conflict-of-interest problems such as loopholes in revolving door laws, inadequate disclosure, and other issues associated with the improper influence of the regulated community over the regulatory process. RDWG has just produced a white paper on the issue, entitled: A Matter of Trust: How the Revolving Door Undermines Public Confidence in Government, and What to Do About It. The paper includes a comprehensive review of problems associated with the revolving door, and proposes the following measures to tighten ethics rules, eliminate loopholes, and reduce conflicts of interest:
- consolidation of ethics oversight entities in the executive branch and in Congress;
- granting the consolidated entities greater oversight and enforcement powers;
- standardization of conflict-of-interest rules throughout the federal government;
- adoption of procedures that would allow the Office of Government Ethics to rule a person ineligible for a certain post if that person's employment background would tend to create frequent conflicts with the rule requiring impartiality on the part of federal employees;
- strengthening of recusal rules that bar appointees from handling matters involving their former employers in the private sector, including mandatory recusal on matters directly involving one's employers and clients during the 24-month period prior to taking office;
- monitoring of recusal agreements by the Office of Government Ethics;
- prohibiting, for a period of time, senior officials from seeking employment with contractors that may have significantly benefited from policies formulated by those officials;
- restricting the granting of waivers that allow public officials to negotiate future employment in the private sector while still in office;
- extending the period during which officials cannot engage in lobbying after leaving office and expanding the scope of prohibited activities;
- requiring federal officials to enter into a binding ethics "exit plan" when leaving the public sector to clarify what activities will be prohibited;
- revoking the special privileges granted to former members of Congress while they are serving as lobbyists; and
- improving the reporting and disclosure of recusal agreements, waivers, lobbyist reports and other ethics filings.
The Revolving Door Working Group's recommendations do not seek to disqualify all private-sector veterans from government service, nor do we suggest that federal officials be completely barred from moving to the business world. Yet there is clearly a need to strengthen the existing regulatory framework covering revolvingdoor activity and to tighten its enforcement. Doing so will go a long way toward restoring integrity to the federal government.
