As lawmakers gain seniority in Congress their influence grows and with that growth comes a sort of manifest destiny to... View Article
Continue readingDaily Outrage: How Fannie and Freddie Bought Congress
If you want your daily rage inducing news piece, this Associated Press investigation into Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae should... View Article
Continue readingThe Revolving Door, Robert Rubin, and Citigroup
Today, President-Elect Barack Obama named the key members of economic team including Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary and Larry Summers... View Article
Continue readingPolicy Review: POGO on Closing the Revolving Door
In the winter of 2007, in between the two sessions of the 110th Congress, Sen. Trent Lott, an institution in... View Article
Continue readingIn Broad Daylight: FBI Peeks Into VIP
An investigation begins into the Friends of Angelo. Stevens’ conviction prompts reform group push. Some people don’t like transparency. That... View Article
Continue readingTransition Recommendations
Lots of folks are starting to think about the transition to a new Administration. We know of at least 2... View Article
Continue readingYou Spin Me Right Round
Congress doesn’t spin records, they spin in revolving doors. And those doors are spinning faster than ever, according to a... View Article
Continue readingWashington’s Revolving Door
The American News Project has a nice piece today on the revolving door problem in Congress, using as an example... View Article
Continue readingGAO on DOD
Last week, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that details the extensive revolving door where former Department of Defense officials are now working for defense contractors, creating glaring conflicts of interest.
GAO's report found that in 2006, defense contractors employed over 86,000 former DOD employees who had left the agency since 2001. The report found instances where former DOD officials were working on contracts under the responsibility of their form agency, office or command. And they found nine instances where former officials are working on a contract "for which they had program oversight responsibilities or decision-making authorities while at DOD."
This isn't a newly recognized problem. A 2004 report by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) on the revolving doors between the government and large private contractors found "conflict of interest is the rule, not the exception."
Continue readingRevolving Door Study Finds Pentagon Contractors at the Turnstiles
Via IEC Journal comes word of this Government Accountability Office report written up in this Government Executive article by Elizabeth Newell on the post-employment trends of 400 top former Defense Department officials -- all of whom were subject to a one-year ban on lobbying their old colleagues. Newell offers this staggering finding:
Approximately 65 percent of those former officials were employed by one of seven contractors: Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC); Northrop Grumman Corp.; Lockheed Martin Corp.; Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.; L3 Communications Holding Inc.; General Dynamics and Raytheon Co. All but one of those companies, Booz Allen Hamilton, ranked in the top 10 of Government Executive's Top 200 Contractors list in 2007. Booz Allen Hamilton was 24th on that list.USASpending.gov, maintained by Office of Management and Budget, ranks all of those seven contractors in their top 20 for 2007. Newell quotes Cristina Chaplain, the report's author, as saying, "Our results indicate that defense contractors may employ a substantial number of former DOD officials on assignments related to their former DOD agencies or their direct responsibilities." Continue reading
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