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The Bipartisan Problem of the Revolving Door

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  • 430 former members of Congress work to help special interests navigate the corridors of power in Washington.
  • Nearly two-thirds of the new members of Congress who left in 2019 and took another job now work to influence federal policy.
  • 60 percent of 44 members who left after last Congress ended and found news job are working in lobbying, consulting, or otherwise influencing government activities.

The latest episode of “The Drill Down With Peter Schweizer” is about the revolving door: how congressmen are parlaying their experience and contacts to make top dollars lobbying their former colleagues.

Full Transcript:

Hi, this is Peter Schweizer, and welcome to the Drill Down, where we drill down on corruption and cronyism in Washington D.C. Today we are going to look at the revolving door, and we’re going to find out how congressmen are parlaying their experience and contacts to make top dollars lobbying their former colleagues.

Recently, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz teamed up over Twitter to try to ban members of Congress from becoming lobbyists after they leave office.[i]

Currently, the law requires, simply,  a “cooling off period”, where a representative cannot register as a lobbyist for one year after leaving office[ii], and if you’re a senator it’s for two years.[iii] But after that year is up, things heat up for former members of Congress. And quickly.

According to one study, nearly two-thirds of the new members of Congress who left in 2019 and took another job now work to influence federal policy. iii

All told, there are 430 former members of Congress who work to help special interests navigate the corridors of power in Washington.[iv]

That’s nearly the size of the actual House of Representatives. It’s like an invisible Congress of insiders-turned-influencers.

When the last Congress ended, 106 members left. Some of them retired or just lost re-election. Where did they go? Well, 44 of them found a new job. And 60% of them are reported to have found a new job either lobbying, consulting, or otherwise influencing government activities.[v]

One reason why political polar opposites like AOC and Ted Cruz might work together on their bill: the problem is truly bipartisan. And it’s enormous.

Democrat Tom Daschle, the former senate majority leader, has been employed by lobbying firms as a “strategic advisor” since 2005.[vi] He made as much as $2.1 million a year advising these firms,[vii] yet never registered as a lobbyist until 2016.

John Boehner, the former Republican Speaker of the House, has also positioned himself well. He is a “strategic advisor” at Squire Patton Boggs[viii], the fourth highest grossing firm in DC.[ix] He is also on the board of Acreage Holdings[x], a marijuana company.[xi]Boehner admits his pro-legalization stance is a strong pivot from his former opposition to legalizing cannabis.

Now, Boehner claims that friends and neighbors helped to change his mind on this issue.[xii] But he’s got 16 million other reasons he’s changed him mind; that’s the payday he stands to collect if the US government legalizes marijuana for recreational use.[xiii]

Or, consider the case of disgraced former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner. He was forced to resign under pressure from his own party in June 2011 after scandalous revelations, but was able to go to work influencing Congress almost immediately.

By July of the same year, he started his own firm, Woolf Weiner Associates.[xiv] He admitted to speaking with members of Congress on behalf of his clients, yet never registered as a lobbyist because of a legal loophole.[xv]

But these strategic advisors, or shadow lobbyists, aren’t the only nefarious avenues former elected officials take to K Street. Some, in fact, are more blatant.

New York Democrat Congressman Joe Crowley, after losing his race to AOC, joined Squire Patton Boggs, alongside former colleague Bill Shuster.[xvi]

They joined a whole cast of former elected officials at the firm, including John Boehner, former Democratic Chief Deputy Whip John Breaux, and Trent Lott, the former Republican Senate Majority Leader. [xvii]

Who says bipartisanship is dead in Washington?

As revolving door lobbyists, Breaux and Lott have billed for almost $120 million from 2006 to August 2018.xv, [xviii]

Democrat Billy Tauzin, a former Louisiana representative, became president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures of America, the main lobbying group for brand-name drug companies, after writing large parts of a 2003 Medicare law that was largely beneficial to Big Pharma.[xix] He reportedly made over $16 million from 2009-2010 serving as president.[xx]

Kansas Rep. Lynn Jenkins, a Republican, even set up her own lobby firm while still in office.

These days, politically opposing members of Congress don’t agree on much. For Senator Cruz and Representative Ocasio-Cortez to work together, the problem must really be bad. And it is.

But the good news is that an overwhelming majority of Americans think Members of Congress shouldn’t be allowed to work as lobbyists.

We will see if their elected representatives will vote the same way.

I’m Peter Schweizer and thank you for watching the Drill Down. For more episodes, find us on social media, or go to drilldowntv.com

Sources:

  1. Caroline Kelly, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ‘Encouraged’ by Work with Ted Cruz’s Legislative Team,” CNN, June 7, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/06/politics/aoc-ted-cruz-working-together/index.html.
  2. 18 U.S.C. §207(e)(1)(B) and (e)(2)-(6).
  3. Opensecrets.org, Center for Responsive Politics, Bulk Data: Lobbying Disclosure Act Data, 2018.
  4. Opensecrets.org, Revolving Door: Former Members, accessed June 20, 2019, https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/top.php?display=Z.
  5. Alan Zibel, Revolving Congress: The Revolving Door Class of 2019 Flocks to K Street, Public Citizen, May 30, 2019, https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/revolvingcongress.pdf?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=8820eb33-df64-48f9-8f1a-9015f85d99falth.
  6. Opensecrets.org, Daschle, Tom: Employment History, accessed June 20, 2019, https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=34118.
  7. Isaac Arnsdorf, “Daschle Is Officially a Lobbyist Now,” Politico, March 29, 2016, https://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/tom-daschle-officially-lobbyist-221334.
  8. “John A. Boehner,” Squire Patton Boggs, last updated 2019, https://www.squirepattonboggs.com/en/professionals/b/boehner-john.
  9. Opensecrets.org, Top Lobbying Firms, 2019, accessed June 20, 2019, https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=2019&indexType=l.
  10.  Anders Melin and Brandon Kochkodin, “John Boehner Can Score Big on Pot Deal with Legalized Weed,” Bloomberg, April 18, 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-18/ex-speaker-boehner-can-score-big-on-pot-deal-with-weed-legalized.
  11.  “About Us,” Acreage Holdings, last updated 2019, https://www.acreageholdings.com/about.
  12.  Jason Breslow, “John Boehner Was Once ‘Unalterably Opposed’ to Marijuana. He Now Wants It to be Legal,” NPR, March 16, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/03/16/704086782/john-boehner-was-once-unalterably-opposed-to-marijuana-he-now-wants-it-to-be-leg.
  13.  Melin and Kochkodin, “John Boehner Can Score Big on Pot Deal with Legalized Weed.”
  14.  “Woolf Weiner Associates Inc.,” Bizapedia, last updated June 6, 2018, https://www.bizapedia.com/ny/woolf-weiner-associates-inc.html.
  15.  Devlin Barrett, “Weiner Calling It Quits,” Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2011, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304186404576389422646672178?KEYWORDS=anthony+weiner.
  16.  Theodoric Meyer and David Beavers, “Crowley and Shuster Head to K Street,” Politico, February 19, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/19/crowley-shuster-lobbyists-1173771.
  17.  Zibel, Revolving Congress: The Revolving Door Class of 2019 Flocks to K Street.
  18.  Opensecrets.org, Center for Responsive Politics, Bulk Data: Lobbying Disclosure Act Data, 2018.
  19.  Robert Pear, “House’s Author of Drug Benefit Joins Lobbyists,” New York Times, December 16, 2004, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/politics/houses-author-of-drug-benefit-joins-lobbyists.html?mtrref=undefined&gwh=CD693FD0F04A67BFFAAA39922F11B98F&gwt=pay.
  20.  Bruce Alpert, “Former U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin Was Paid Millions as a Lobbyist, Records Show,” NOLA.com, December 6, 2011, https://www.nola.com/politics/2011/12/former_us_rep_billy_tauzin_was.html.