It's easy to complain about the pace and competency of the Obama Administrations efforts to implement "change", but this was a nice Thanksgiving gift from the White House.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists are likely to be ejected from federal advisory panels as part of a little-noticed initiative by the Obama administration to curb K Street's influence in Washington, according to White House officials and lobbying experts.
The new policy -- issued with little fanfare this fall by the White House ethics counsel -- may turn out to be the most far-reaching lobbying rule change so far from President Obama, who also has sought to restrict the ability of lobbyists to get jobs in his administration and to negotiate over stimulus contracts.
Under the policy, which is being phased in over the coming months, none of the more than 13,000 lobbyists in Washington would be able to hold seats on the committees, which advise agencies on trade rules, troop levels, environmental regulations, consumer protections and thousands of other government policies
Not surprisingly, the lobbying community has opposed the initiative. It's hard to imagine what value there is in having lobbyists that always have the same predictable viewpoints and objectives serving on advisory panels.
It makes me wonder whether more of this kind of thing is going on unnoticed - a slow, methodical effort by the Obama Administration to change the workings of government to our benefit.
How about the biggest lobbyist of all? SEIU.
Posted by: casiane8@aol.com | November 28, 2009 at 02:20 PM
SEIU is on the list for sure.
Posted by: Jay McDonough | November 30, 2009 at 04:52 PM