Ex-lawmakers can job-hunt in secret

Loophole in legislation gives cover to retirees

WASHINGTON – Thirty-five members of Congress – 32 in the House and three in the Senate – are serving out the last months of their terms while the public is left in the dark on whether new jobs they may land pose potential conflicts of interest.

The two main reasons: a loophole in legislation that was touted as promoting disclosure of retirees’ post-congressional job negotiations, and interpretations of how to apply the law. The two combined to result in almost no disclosure for these retiring members or anyone leaving office.

A report released last summer by the group Public Citizen found that only about 2 percent of the 349 House members who retired, resigned or lost re-election from 2008 through 2016 disclosed any negotiations for future employment. Only about 14 percent of 59 Senate members who left during that period made such disclosures.

“These numbers represent a clear problem with compliance to the spirit, if not the letter, of the law,” the report states.

In the current two-year election cycle, the total number of disclosures made so far: zero.

“Nobody’s looking for work, huh?” joked Meredith McGehee with the Campaign Legal Center.

That’s not the way it was supposed to be when Congress passed an ethics overhaul in 2007 that included provisions requiring public disclosure and possible recusal by lawmakers when they begin negotiating for a new job.

A few years before, former Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana was accused of negotiating to head the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America while he was playing a role in passing legislation that provided financial benefits to drugmakers.

Watchdog groups objected last year when Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, while helping to craft the Republican tax cut bill, was negotiating to head the Ohio Business Roundtable, which represents numerous large companies in the state.

Tiberi, a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, denied any conflict of interest and refused to recuse himself from the tax debate.

He resigned from the House to take over the business group. Tiberi said he followed guidance provided by the House ethics committee. The panel is not allowed to comment or even confirm whether advice was given to members.

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., former chairman of the House ethics committee, quit the House in May and in June began two jobs – as a senior policy adviser at the international law firm DLA Piper and as a commentator for CNN.

The public has no way of knowing when Dent began negotiating with either employer. Dent declined to comment for this story, saying he has an exclusivity agreement with CNN.

The reason so few public disclosures are available for House members can be found in a small tweak made to the original disclosure language in the 2007 legislation called the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act.

The original House version required that members notify the House clerk within three days of beginning negotiations for a new job. Those notices would automatically have been open to the public.

The final bill that became law directs that the notice be filed with the House ethics committee. Those notices are kept secret. The only way the notices become public is if a House member decides to recuse himself or herself from official action because of a conflict of interest. Then, the Congress member is required to file with the House clerk a copy of a job negotiation notice, which becomes public.

Rep. Charlie Dent