USA TODAY International Edition
Ex- lobbyists swarm White House
Despite ‘ drain the swamp’ pledge, more than 100 have jobs
More than 100 former federal lobbyists have found jobs in the Trump administration, despite President Trump’s campaign pledge to restrict the power of special interests in Washington, according to a tally provided to USA TODAY by a Democratic group.
Roughly two- thirds of them — 69 — work in the agencies they have lobbied at some point in their careers, according to research by American Bridge 21st Century. They include about three dozen recent lobbyists who have not received waivers from Trump’s ethics rule that bars industry insiders and former lobbyists from working on specific matters that benefited their former employers or clients for two years after their appointments.
The prevalence of lobbyists in the new administration shows that Trump and his aides “are holding themselves to a differ- ent standard than we expected,” said Lisa Gilbert of the liberalleaning group Public Citizen, which is likely to release its own study this week highlighting exlobbyists working on the same issues in government as they did in their recent lobbying posts.
“Hiring former lobbyists at the agencies they just lobbied is problematic,” Gilbert said.
Industry insiders and former lobbyists working in the administration range from Amy Swonger, the White House’s deputy
director of legislative affairs, who lobbied on behalf of nearly two dozen clients before joining the White House staff, to Stephen Vaughn, the general counsel at the U. S. Trade Representative. He lobbied on trade laws on behalf of U. S. Steel as recently as 2015, federal records show.
Other industry figures in the government include Kristi Boswell, who worked as a Farm Bureau lobbyist until this year and is an aide to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Robert Eitel, who has worked as a lawyer for a company that owns forprofit colleges and serves as spe- cial counselor to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
None has received a waiver from a Trump ethics rule that bars former lobbyists and other political appointees from participating in specific matters that are “directly and substantially” related to their former clients or employers.
Instead, White House and administration officials said the former lobbyists and other industry officials joining the government avoid conflicts of interest by shedding themselves of financial ties to their former employers and agree to recuse themselves from working on the specific issues they handled in their old jobs.
“The White House takes seriously the need for appointees to resign, recuse and divest where required,” said Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman. “The White House Counsel’s Office worked closely with all White House officials to avoid conflicts arising from their former places of employment or investment holdings.”
White House officials view waivers, which provide blanket exemptions to Trump’s ethics rules, as a last resort, granted only to key staffers with broad portfolios. “To the furthest extent possible, counsel worked with each staffer to recuse from conflicting conduct rather than being granted waivers,” Walters said.
Roughly two dozen waivers have been granted to political appointees throughout the government, putting Trump on pace to exceed the 22 President Obama granted during the first full year he was in office.
( Waiver recipients include White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who is allowed to have contact with his former colleagues at the Republican National Committee, and Lance Leggitt, a former health care lobbyist who is chief of staff at the Health and Human Services Department.)
On the campaign trail, Trump often pledged to confront Washington lobbyists and “drain the swamp” of special interests.
American Bridge researchers found former lobbyists working at agencies they lobbied at some point in their careers — ranging from 15 in the executive office of the president to one or two at departments such as Labor and the Treasury.
Agency officials said the former lobbyists and industry officials they hired avoid the specific issues that affect their former clients or employers.
At the Education Department, Eitel recused himself from a broad range of issues that could affect for- profit college operators, such as Bridgepoint Education, where he worked as a lawyer, according to agency spokeswoman Liz Hill.
Those include DeVos’ planned review of an Obama- era “gainful employment” rule, which penalizes for- profit colleges whose graduates’ earnings eat into more than 8% of their income. The industry has opposed the regulation.
Last week, DeVos announced plans to create a committee to review that rule and another that would ease loan repayment requirements for students if a for- profit college used deceptive tactics to persuade students to borrow money for tuition.
At the Treasury, senior adviser Mauricio Claver- Carone, a former lobbyist who until recently led one of the most vocal pro- Cuba- embargo groups in Washington, is steering clear of Cuba sanctions policy in his new government role. His hiring had been hailed by pro- embargo forces as a good sign for their efforts.
Last week, pro- embargo interests celebrated as Trump announced he was reinstating some travel and business restrictions on Cuba that had been eased during the previous administration.
“The White House takes seriously the need for appointees to resign, recuse and divest where required.”
Lindsay Walters, White House spokeswoman