March 10, 2021
Biden Ethics Pledge Alone Will Not Insulate the Administration from Conflicts of Interest
On President Biden’s first day in office, he made clear that, after the Trump administration’s fantastically corrupt reign, restoring trust in the federal government’s senior leadership would be a priority. His executive order on ethics, signed within hours of his inauguration, went further than any other towards slowing the revolving door and limiting conflicts of interest while in office. Subsequent appointments make clear, however, that these elevated standards are still not enough. Simply following the letter of the order will leave significant room for conflicts of interest to poison the administration’s actions and public trust.
February 23, 2021 | Jacobin
INTERVIEW: Who Is Merrick Garland's Friend Jamie Gorelick?
Jamie Gorelick, a high-powered lawyer who defended the city of Chicago after the police murder of Laquan McDonald and sits on the board of Amazon, is a case study of the influence big corporate law firms wield behind the scenes in Washington — and she has friends like Merrick Garland in high places in the Biden administration. The Revolving Door Project’s Elias Alsbergas and Max Moran spoke with Jacobin’s Alex N. Press about what Gorelick’s ties to Garland could mean for the Biden Administration’s Justice Department.
February 01, 2021
Congress Must Ask: Did Trump Politicize Our Civil Service?
The Bush Administration twisted the government’s neutral hiring process to staff the career civil service with right-wing ideologues. We don’t yet know if Trump did the same thing. And we won’t find out without help from Congress.
January 21, 2021
LETTER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN ON FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES
You have committed to rooting out the corruption of the previous Trump administration and have proposed sweeping government ethics proposals, which we commend. But in order to stick to these promises and to assure the American public that your administration will put national security concerns over corporate profits or foreign interests, we urge you to, at the very least, direct your nominees and appointees to clearly describe the specific nature of their past work for the private sector actors, especially those under investigation by or in ongoing contracts with the federal government. Earlier this week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recognizing the significance of these conflicts, requested additional information on nominees’ private sector work. The undersigned groups urge you to complete this request swiftly and ensure all of your appointees disclose the full scope and nature of their private sector work.
January 21, 2021
Biden Administration Must Go Further in Financial Disclosures to Reveal Possible Conflicts of Interest in Foreign Policy Making, Groups Say in Open Letter
Dozens of foreign policy, faith-based, environmental organizations, and watchdog groups are calling on President Biden to require more thorough screenings for, and disclosures of, possible conflicts of interest among nominees and appointees to the new administration. In a letter sent to the White House today, over 40 groups, including the American Friends Service Committee, Friends of the Earth, Government Accountability Project, Peace Action, Project on Government Oversight, Public Citizen, Win Without War, and the Revolving Door Project say the Personal Financial Disclosures submitted by Biden’s nominees do not include vital information about private sector work and personal investments, posing questions about potential conflicts of interest.
January 21, 2021
To Build Back Better, Biden Must Fix Government
Yesterday, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. President Biden has promised to build back a better America, but he faces a steep climb to reach this lofty goal. The nation is still reeling from an ongoing pandemic and recession, and the government has had to cope with massive shocks to the civil service, morale, and its basic functions during the Trump administration. To make good on his promise, Biden will need to undo the damage from Trump and decades of right-wing actions to undermine governance.
January 13, 2021 | CODEPINK
WEBINAR: Joe Biden’s BlackRock Cabinet Picks
Our Max Moran joined CODEPINK Campaign Organizer Nancy Mancias to discuss investment management giant BlackRock’s role in influencing President-elect Biden’s executive branch personnel choices.
January 12, 2021
Gary Cohn, IBM, And A Tale As Old As Time
Amidst renewed furor to impeach Trump and expel Members of Congress for supporting the right wing Capitol Insurrection, more typical elite corruption goes without comment. IBM announced in January that Gary Cohn, Trump’s former head of the National Economic Council, would be appointed vice-chairman. Despite announcements that some corporations and lobbyists mulled temporarily suspending donations to Republicans inciting riots and IBM’s claim to support black lives, their announcement reveals the lie: Corporate America has no problem bringing high-level Trump appointees back into their elite fold.
January 04, 2021
A Strong Ethics Pledge Will Pay Political Dividends
At a moment when our country’s divisions seem deeper than ever, there remains one thing on which a consistent majority can agree: corporate America has too much influence over our government. Americans across the political spectrum understand that corporations benefit when people pass in and out of the revolving door between government and the private sector.
December 23, 2020 | The American Prospect
The Most Important Biden Appointee No One Has Heard Of
One role that remains unfilled will be vital to enacting Biden’s policy agenda: the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Although many Americans have never heard of OIRA, the office is well known among corporate lobbyists, who take full advantage of its ability to stop regulations in their tracks. Since the Reagan administration, OIRA has earned a reputation as “the death row of well-meaning legislation.”
December 23, 2020 | The Daily Beast
Biden Team’s Looming NatSec Conflicts Spell Trouble
In January of 1961, President Eisenhower warned the nation of the union between the mushrooming arms industry and the Department of Defense. The military-industrial complex, as he put it, would imperil democracy and put the defense industry in the driver’s seat of the nation’s foreign and domestic policy. And now, Joe Biden, with his early foreign policy and defense picks, has made some choices that are emblematic of a conflict of interest-laden status quo for which there is no constituency (at least not one that isn’t on the payroll).
December 16, 2020
Proposed Executive Order on Ethics
Americans are fed up with their government working better for corporate America than it does for them. The Revolving Door Project’s proposed executive order on ethics goes further than any in history towards stopping the revolving door from spinning and shifting the balance of power towards the populace.
December 15, 2020
Buttigieg's Campaign Donors Would Likely Get A Strong R.O.I. If He Headed Transportation
Pete Buttigieg is now a top contender for Secretary of Transportation in the Biden Administration, but his tendency to shift policy positions based on the preferences of large donors and industry lobbyists remains a significant concern if he were chosen to head DOT.
December 01, 2020
It Will Take Years To Recover From Trump's Historic Corruption
His lawlessness, cravenness, and wanton destruction of our economy and planet have been ably documented by dedicated journalists — yet surely, there is still more corruption and social devastation that was simply never reported or found while Trump was in office.