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
Public Citizen
July 27, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C. – 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).
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the
executive branch and the courts.