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Trumps Watered-Down Ethics Rules Let a Lobbyist Help Run an Agency He Lobbied
This is too late for LBN, and it is hardly impartial. It reads like an op-ed. It is still worth reading.
Hat tip, a retweet from @sahilkapur at @DonnyFerguson:
Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur 21h21 hours ago
An executive order by POTUS cites a section of U.S. law that doesn’t exist, per ProPublica. http://bit.ly/2kepwQ6
An executive order by POTUS cites a section of U.S. law that doesn’t exist, per ProPublica. http://bit.ly/2kepwQ6
Link to tweet
Trump’s Watered-Down Ethics Rules Let a Lobbyist Help Run an Agency He Lobbied
President Trump’s executive order on ethics also cites a section of the law that doesn’t exist.
by Justin Elliott
ProPublica, Feb. 10, 2017, 4:47 p.m.
Geoff Burr spent much of the last decade as the chief lobbyist for a powerful construction industry trade group. Burr sought to influence a host of regulations of the Department of Labor, opposing wage standards for federal construction contracts and working against an effort to limit workers’ exposure to dangerous silica dust.
In the Obama administration, someone like Burr would have been barred by ethics rules from taking a job at an agency that he had lobbied. ... In the Trump administration, Burr now has a top job at the Labor Department.
Burr is the first publicly known example of a former lobbyist who was able to take a job in the government as a result of President Donald Trump’s watering down of ethics rules in place during the Obama administration.
....
Instead of banning lobbyists from working at agencies they lobbied, the Trump pledge, which has to be signed by all executive appointees, imposes restrictions on what such officials can work on. Specifically it says they cannot “participate in any particular matter on which I lobbied … or participate in the specific issue area in which that particular matter falls.”
Ethics lawyers are now puzzling over what exactly that language means.
That task {of banning lobbyists from working at agencies they lobbied} is made more confusing because of an apparent error in the Trump executive order: It says the phrase “particular matter” has the “same meaning as set forth in section 207 of title 28, United States Code.” ... That part of the U.S. code does not exist. ... There is a definition for that term in section 207 of title 18. (The error is doubly strange because much of the Trump executive order was copied word for word from an earlier Obama order. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.)
....
Is there anything happening at the Department of Labor that we should know about? Email Justin@propublica.org or contact him on Signal at 774–826–6240.
Justin Elliott
Justin Elliott is a ProPublica reporter covering politics and government accountability. To securely send Justin documents or other files online, visit our SecureDrop page.
@JustinElliott
President Trump’s executive order on ethics also cites a section of the law that doesn’t exist.
by Justin Elliott
ProPublica, Feb. 10, 2017, 4:47 p.m.
Geoff Burr spent much of the last decade as the chief lobbyist for a powerful construction industry trade group. Burr sought to influence a host of regulations of the Department of Labor, opposing wage standards for federal construction contracts and working against an effort to limit workers’ exposure to dangerous silica dust.
In the Obama administration, someone like Burr would have been barred by ethics rules from taking a job at an agency that he had lobbied. ... In the Trump administration, Burr now has a top job at the Labor Department.
Burr is the first publicly known example of a former lobbyist who was able to take a job in the government as a result of President Donald Trump’s watering down of ethics rules in place during the Obama administration.
....
Instead of banning lobbyists from working at agencies they lobbied, the Trump pledge, which has to be signed by all executive appointees, imposes restrictions on what such officials can work on. Specifically it says they cannot “participate in any particular matter on which I lobbied … or participate in the specific issue area in which that particular matter falls.”
Ethics lawyers are now puzzling over what exactly that language means.
That task {of banning lobbyists from working at agencies they lobbied} is made more confusing because of an apparent error in the Trump executive order: It says the phrase “particular matter” has the “same meaning as set forth in section 207 of title 28, United States Code.” ... That part of the U.S. code does not exist. ... There is a definition for that term in section 207 of title 18. (The error is doubly strange because much of the Trump executive order was copied word for word from an earlier Obama order. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.)
....
Is there anything happening at the Department of Labor that we should know about? Email Justin@propublica.org or contact him on Signal at 774–826–6240.
Justin Elliott
Justin Elliott is a ProPublica reporter covering politics and government accountability. To securely send Justin documents or other files online, visit our SecureDrop page.
@JustinElliott
Labor Department Hire Could Presage Collision Between Trump and Construction Unions
The president has cultivated a relationship with the building trades unions. But early hires at the Department of Labor are opponents of wage standards for construction contracts.
by Justin Elliott
ProPublica, Feb. 8, 2017, 11:42 a.m.
....
As a member of the Trump beachhead team, Burr is now engaged on Davis-Bacon matters at the department, according to a staffer familiar with his work.
A Department of Labor spokeswoman declined to elaborate on Burr’s role and the future of Davis-Bacon. “It would be premature to speculate any policy decisions till the secretary is confirmed,” Jillian Rogers said.
....
Another member of the Department of Labor beachhead team, Nathan Mehrens, has publicly blasted Davis-Bacon. Mehrens previously was president of the group Americans for Limited Government.
....
Have information or ideas about labor policy under the Trump administration? Email Justin@propublica.org or contact him on Signal at 774–826–6240.
Justin Elliott
Justin Elliott is a ProPublica reporter covering politics and government accountability. To securely send Justin documents or other files online, visit our SecureDrop page.
@JustinElliott
The president has cultivated a relationship with the building trades unions. But early hires at the Department of Labor are opponents of wage standards for construction contracts.
by Justin Elliott
ProPublica, Feb. 8, 2017, 11:42 a.m.
....
As a member of the Trump beachhead team, Burr is now engaged on Davis-Bacon matters at the department, according to a staffer familiar with his work.
A Department of Labor spokeswoman declined to elaborate on Burr’s role and the future of Davis-Bacon. “It would be premature to speculate any policy decisions till the secretary is confirmed,” Jillian Rogers said.
....
Another member of the Department of Labor beachhead team, Nathan Mehrens, has publicly blasted Davis-Bacon. Mehrens previously was president of the group Americans for Limited Government.
....
Have information or ideas about labor policy under the Trump administration? Email Justin@propublica.org or contact him on Signal at 774–826–6240.
Justin Elliott
Justin Elliott is a ProPublica reporter covering politics and government accountability. To securely send Justin documents or other files online, visit our SecureDrop page.
@JustinElliott
if you work at the Dept. of Labor and see changes under new admin, email me: justin@propublica.org, Signal: (774) 826-6240, PGP: 2C353E48
Link to tweet
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