Trump sets 5-year and lifetime lobbying ban for officials

[CaseyJones]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_LOBBYING_BAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-01-28-17-31-55


President Donald Trump acted Saturday to fulfill a key portion of his pledge to "drain the swamp" in Washington, banning administration officials from ever lobbying the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government and imposing a separate five-year ban on other lobbying.

Trump has said individuals who want to aid him in his quest to "Make America Great Again" should focus on the jobs they will be doing to help the American people, not thinking ahead to the future income they could rake in by peddling their influence after serving in government.

"Most of the people standing behind me will not be able to go to work," Trump joked, referring to an array of White House officials who lined up behind him as he sat at his Oval Office desk. The officials included Vice President Mike Pence, chief of staff Reince Priebus, senior strategist Steve Bannon and counselor Kellyanne Conway. "So you have one last chance to get out."

Trump said he talked about the ban a lot during the campaign and "we're now putting it into effect."

In a pair of separate actions, Trump took steps to begin restructuring the White House National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council. He also gave Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the president's top military advisers, 30 days to come up with a plan defeat the Islamic State group. Scores of people have been killed in terrorist acts that IS has carried out overseas or has inspired on U.S. soil.

Under an executive order that Trump signed in the presence of the news media, every political appointee joining the executive branch on or after Jan. 20 - the day Trump took office - must agree to the lobbying bans. That includes avoiding, for five years after leaving, lobbying the agency they worked for.

Another provision sets a two-year period during which appointees must avoid working on issues involving former employers or clients.

Trump is allowed to waive any of the restrictions.

Questions had been raised about how the bans would be enforced. The order says they are "solely enforceable" by the U.S. government "by any legally available means," including debarment proceeding within any affected executive branch agency, or civil court proceedings.

Former appointees who are found to have violated the ban may also be barred from lobbying their former agency for up to five years, on top of the five-year period covered by the pledge, the executive order states.

Trump said the order supersedes one that President Barack Obama signed on Jan. 21, 2009, that banned anyone from lobbying the government for a period of two years after leaving. Trump said Obama's order was "full of loopholes."

The president signed the order and a pair of presidential memoranda near the end of an intense day of telephone diplomacy during which he discussed a range of issues with the leaders of Japan, Germany, Russia, France and Australia. All are leaders Trump needs to build relationships with.

Trump had released the plan for a lobbying ban a few weeks before the November election, one of several promised policies aimed at curbing corruption and the influence of lobbyists in Washington. Trump also made promises about transparency and ethics.

Some have argued that the ban could make it difficult for Trump to fill thousands of jobs throughout the administration by causing some candidates to become squeamish about limiting their ability to make money after they leave government employment.

Others say the prohibitions on lobbying are too insignificant to be effective.

+1 Trump

[angelatc]

I think this is probably not Constitutional.

[UWDude]

Ill wait for CPUd and Zippy to post from talkingpointsmemo.net and Huffington Post and Politico to explain why this is horrible. Or maybe one of them can post a poll that shows "americans" disagree with this, or maybe one of them will say he is lying, and they all are lobbying already, because they are eating lunch at a restaurant and advocation regulation change.


I think this is probably not Constitutional.

Trump is the head of the executive. If someone doesn't want to be banned from lobbying, they can resign.

[CPUd]

What about 'consultants'? What's the difference between a lobbyist and a consultant?

[Suzanimal]

Trump is allowed to waive any of the restrictions.

Well, there ya go.

[nikcers]

What's the difference between a lobbyist and a consultant?
http://media.web.britannica.com/eb-media/08/91308-004-F80908BB.jpg

[Origanalist]

Well, there ya go.

It's good to be King.

[AngryCanadian]

That's a good move by Trump's admin, why are all the snowflakes all upset?

[opal]

And why were the professional lobbyists not also banned from government buildings? Seems like if he was going to put pen to paper, that would have been part of it.

[ChristianAnarchist]

How about they just issue "lobbyist" hunting licenses? It seems to work for keeping dear and ducks in check...

[TheCount]

That's a good move by Trump's admin, why are all the snowflakes all upset?Because a large number of his appointees are functionally lobbyists. Closing the door after the fox is already in the chicken coop will not accomplish anything.

[69360]

So they won't register as lobbyists and will be "paid consultants". BFD.

[UWDude]

haters gonna hate all day, because they will never be president. Nobody would ever elect you president, TheCount and 69360. Just letting you know.

[LibertyEagle]

So they won't register as lobbyists and will be "paid consultants". BFD.

At least he's trying.

I haven't read the Executive Order. Have you?

[presence]

Lobbying (also lobby) is the act of attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of officials in a government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying


The right to petition government for redress of grievances is the right (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights) to make a complaint to, or seek the assistance of, one's government (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government), without fear of punishment or reprisals. The Article 44 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_Fundamental_Rights_of_the_European_Unio n) ensures the right to petition to the European Parliament (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament).[1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_petition#cite_note-1) The right can be traced back to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Law_for_the_Federal_Republic_of_Germany),[2] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_petition#cite_note-2) the Bill of Rights 1689 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_Rights_1689), the Petition of Right (1628) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petition_of_Right), and Magna Carta (1215) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta).

The prohibition of abridgment of the "right to petition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petition)" originally referred only to the Congress (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress) and the US federal courts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_federal_courts). The incorporation doctrine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_doctrine) later expanded the protection of the right to its current scope, over all state and federal courts and legislatures, and the executive branches of the state[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_petition#cite_note-ifac1-3) and federal governments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_petition

There is nothing wrong with bitching;
the wrong is in granting property entitlements to bitches.

[69360]

At least he's trying.

I haven't read the Executive Order. Have you?

If he was trying, his appointments would have been quite different.

[kcchiefs6465]

That's a good move by Trump's admin, why are all the snowflakes all upset?
If Trump can unilaterally act as he has, the next president can do the same. So at best, ignoring the fact that there are ways around his "law," in four or eight years it may be revoked and a new executive action issued. While I don't expect a Canadian to be particularly versed in Constitutional Law, you might remember that the United States was not established as a kingdom for laws to be set by the president.

When a communist gets elected and starts their executive decrees, the precedent will (and has already) been set.

[Zippyjuan]

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/28/512201631/trumps-executive-order-on-ethics-pulls-word-for-word-from-obama-clinton

Only difference is time frame.


Trump's Executive Order On Ethics Pulls Word For Word From Obama, Clinton

In signing an executive order imposing tough ethics standards on executive branch employees, President Trump followed a path laid by the two Democratic presidents who preceded him, almost word for word.

"This is a five-year lobbying ban," Trump said at the ceremony where he signed this and two other orders. "It's a two-year ban now, and it's got full of loopholes, and this is a five-year ban."

He joked that the senior staff standing near him for the signing had "one last chance to get out" before they would have to stick to limits on lobbying laid out in the directive.

"This was something, the five-year ban, that I have been talking a lot about on the campaign trail," Trump added. By the end of his campaign, supporters were chanting "drain the swamp," so this order, like many of his others in the past week amounts to Trump trying to show he's keeping a campaign pledge.

But what Trump is doing is derivative of what his two immediate Democratic predecessors did. On his first full day in office, Jan. 20, 1993, President Bill Clinton signed an executive order titled, "Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees." Twenty four years, a week and a day later, President Trump signed an order bearing the exact same title.

But the similarities don't stop there. As Trump's team drafted his order on ethics, they appear to have borrowed heavily from the language used in orders signed by both Clinton and President Obama. Obama also pulled from Clinton, in parts and the ethics directive signed by President George W. Bush is nearly identical to the one signed by his father twelve years earlier. But that's less surprising given those were presidents using the language of their predecessor from the same party. Perhaps more importantly, Trump not only seems to be lifting from Democratic presidents' language, but they are presidents he has condemned, including for not "draining the swamp."

"The story here is not the copying per se, it is the claim Trump has been making that he is doing something really different, new, and righteous when, apparently, in many respects he is actually copying Democrats he so thoroughly condemned as corrupt," said John Woolley, a professor at UC Santa Barbara and co-director of the Presidency Project.

The irony, he points out, is that those Democrats had also promised their own version of draining the swamp in response to the Republican president who preceded them.



Examples (more at link):


Trump:

"Section 1. Ethics Pledge. Every appointee in every executive agency appointed on or after January 20, 2017, shall sign, and upon signing shall be contractually committed to, the following pledge upon becoming an appointee:"
Obama:

"Section 1. Ethics Pledge. Every appointee in every executive agency appointed on or after January 20, 2009, shall sign, and upon signing shall be contractually committed to, the following pledge upon becoming an appointee:"
Clinton:

"Section 1. Ethics Pledges. (a) Every senior appointee in every executive agency appointed on or after January 20, 1993, shall sign, and upon signing shall be contractually committed to, the following pledge ("senior appointee pledge") upon becoming a senior appointee:"
Trump:

"As a condition, and in consideration, of my employment in the United States Government in an appointee position invested with the public trust, I commit myself to the following obligations, which I understand are binding on me and are enforceable under law:"
Obama:

"As a condition, and in consideration, of my employment in the United States Government in a position invested with the public trust, I commit myself to the following obligations, which I understand are binding on me and are enforceable under law:"
Clinton:

"As a condition, and in consideration, of my employment in the United States Government in a senior appointee position invested with the public trust, I commit myself to the following obligations, which I understand are binding on me and are enforceable under law:"
Trump:

"2. If, upon my departure from the Government, I am covered by the post-employment restrictions on communicating with employees of my former executive agency set forth in section 207(c) of title 18, United States Code, I agree that I will abide by those restrictions."
Obama:

"4. Revolving Door Ban Appointees Leaving Government. If, upon my departure from the Government, I am covered by the post employment restrictions on communicating with employees of my former executive agency set forth in section 207(c) of title 18, United States Code, I agree that I will abide by those restrictions for a period of 2 years following the end of my appointment."
Trump:

"3. In addition to abiding by the limitations of paragraphs 1 and 2, I also agree, upon leaving Government service, not to engage in lobbying activities with respect to any covered executive branch official or non-career Senior Executive Service appointee for the remainder of the Administration."
Obama:

"5. Revolving Door Ban Appointees Leaving Government to Lobby. In addition to abiding by the limitations of paragraph 4, I also agree, upon leaving Government service, not to lobby any covered executive branch official or non career Senior Executive Service appointee for the remainder of the Administration."
Trump:

"4. I will not, at any time after the termination of my employment in the United States Government, engage in any activity on behalf of any foreign government or foreign political party which, were it undertaken on January 20, 2017, would require me to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended."
Clinton:

"3. I will not, at any time after the termination of my employment in the United States Government, engage in any activity on behalf of any foreign government or foreign political party which, if undertaken on January 20, 1993, would require me to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended."
Trump: 5.

"I will not accept gifts from registered lobbyists or lobbying organizations for the duration of my service as an appointee."
Obama:

"1. Lobbyist Gift Ban. I will not accept gifts from registered lobbyists or lobbying organizations for the duration of my service as an appointee."
Trump:

"6. I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts."
Obama:

"2. Revolving Door Ban All Appointees Entering Government. I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts."