Lobbyists Not Allowed on Obama Transition Team

[Hope And Change]

Obama Transition Team's Rules for Lobbyists

Obama Transition Announces Rules for Lobbyists in Transition

Washington, DC: During a briefing today at the Presidential Transition Team headquarters, Obama Transition Co-Chair John Podesta announced the strictest, and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history. The rules are:

· Federal Lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.

· Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.

· If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.

· If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the Transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.

· A gift ban that is aggressive in reducing the influence of special interests.


more...

http://thepage.time.com/obama-transition-teams-rules-for-lobbyists/

[democrattotheend]

1. Isn't the American Enterprise Institute a conservative organization?

I'm a little surprised to see Norm Ornstein from AEI praise Obama's policy. Based on what he and the guy from Brookings said, it sounds like this actually has some teeth and isn't just a gimmick.

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. Ornstein is probably the closest thing to a "moderate" that the AEI has

He was a regular on Al Franken's old radio show. DLC'ers seem to like the guy, apparently.

[DevonRex]

3. That is fantastic!! Thank you so much H&C. nt

[Skwmom]

4. A 12 month ban is not much more than no ban at all.

You can get someone a job but have to wait 12 months to lobby them. Give me a break. They should not be allowed to lobby for the duration of Obama's presidency.