Common Dreams (press release), ME
July 27 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
JULY 27, 2005
10:28 AM CONTACT: Public Citizen
Taylor Lincoln (202) 454-5197
Angela Bradbery (202) 588-7741

Members of Congress Increasingly Use Revolving Door to Launch
Lucrative Lobbying Careers

43 Percent of Lawmakers Who Left Office Since 1998 Have Become
Lobbyists, Public Citizen Analysis Shows

WASHINGTON – July 27 – Forty-three percent of members of Congress who
left office since 1998 and were eligible to lobby have become
lobbyists, indicating that Congress has increasingly become a way
station on the path to the lucrative influence-peddling industry,
according to a new Public Citizen report released today.

The report, Congressional Revolving Doors: The Journey from Congress
to K Street, examines in depth the case of one former member who has
done particularly well after going through the revolving door. Just
days after he left Congress in 1999 amid allegations of an
extramarital affair, former U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.) opened a
lobbying shop. In the first year he pulled in $1.1 million, even
though he was restricted from personally lobbying his former
colleagues for a year. (Former members often skirt the lobby
prohibition rules by supervising other lobbyists for the first year
after leaving Congress.) The next year, after the cooling-off period
was lifted, his firm’s lobbying revenues more than quadrupled to $4.8
million.

The report, based on hundreds of lobbyist registration documents as
well as industry and news media reports, is available at
, a new Public Citizen Web site launched
today and designed to track the influence of special interests in
Washington. The Web site contains a searchable database of former
federal officials and staff who have passed through the revolving
door, Public Citizen investigative reports on lobbying battles waged
by industry, detailed summaries of influence-peddling laws and
recommendations for reforming the system.

“People used to run for Congress to serve the greater good and help
the public,” said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. “Now
Congress has become a way station to wealth. Members use it for job
training and networking so they can leave office and cash in on the
connections they forged as elected officials. No wonder the public is
cynical about whose interests lawmakers are protecting in Washington.
Lobbying has become the top career choice for departing members of
Congress.”

According to the report:

Forty-three percent of the 198 members who have left Congress since
1998 and were eligible to lobby have become registered lobbyists.
Fifty percent of eligible departing members of the U.S. Senate have
become lobbyists (18 of 36) while 42 percent of eligible departing
members of the U.S. House of Representatives have become lobbyists
(68 of 162).
Almost 52 percent of the Republican members of Congress who left
Capitol Hill since 1998 registered to lobby (58 of 112) compared to
33 percent of the departing Democrats (28 of 86). This could reflect
the fact that after George W. Bush became president, Washington
became a hostile place for lobbyists whose contacts were Democratic.
As part of the “K Street Project” pushed by Republicans, including
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), lobbying firms that hired
former Democratic members of Congress were to be denied access and
business by the Republican majority.
Of the 2000 departing class, the ratio was even more lopsided when
Republicans won the White House and retained control of Congress.
More than 62 percent of Republicans (23 of 37) who left that year
became lobbyists, compared to only 15 percent of Democrats (2 of 13).

Livingston exemplifies how a member-turned-lobbyist interacts with
his former colleagues. In six years, Livingston built his business
into the 12th largest non-law lobbying firm in Washington and took in
almost $40 million from 1999 through 2004, records show. Among his
clients are Turkey, Morocco and the Cayman Islands, which
collectively paid his firm $11 million from 2000 to 2004, with $9
million of that coming from Turkey.

Livingston delivered; he helped ensure that a $1 billion supplemental
appropriation for Turkey remained intact through the legislative
process, despite that country’s refusal to allow U.S. troops to use
its soil as a staging area for the Iraq invasion. He also helped kill
an amendment that would have formally recognized the Armenian
genocide that occurred between 1915 and 1923. Turkey has always
opposed this recognition.

Livingston, his wife Bonnie and his two political action committees
(PACs) also contributed $503,449 to various candidates or their PACs
from 2000 through 2004. Some of that money went to people Livingston
later lobbied.

“The revolving door is spinning faster than ever,” said Frank
Clemente, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “When
nearly half the lawmakers in Congress use their position to move into
a job that pays so handsomely, it’s time to change the system.”

In light of the findings, Public Citizen recommends the following
reforms:

Extend the former members’ cooling-off period (the time during which
they are not allowed to lobby) to two years and include the
supervision of lobbyists as a prohibited activity.
Require members of Congress to disclose their employment negotiations
while they are in office if they pose a conflict of interest, similar
to the requirement for the executive branch.
Repeal the privileges that give former members of Congress special
access to former colleagues (access to the House and Senate floor and
to members-only gymnasiums and restaurants) if they register to
lobby.
Prohibit registered lobbyists from making, soliciting or arranging
campaign contributions to elected officials in the branches of
government they lobby (Congress, the executive branch or both).