Trump axes Biden-era ethics order, lobbying restrictions

Amid a flood of executive orders signed Monday, President Trump revoked an executive order signed by former President Biden that set ethics and lobbying rules for appointees.

The Biden-era executive order banned gifts from lobbyists and expanded the requisite “cooling off” period for appointees who leave federal service to join lobbying firms. The order also implemented a one-year ban on “shadow lobbying,” a common practice in Washington in which former officials advise those lobbying government officials rather than directly lobbying themselves.

“It's a very big deal,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist at the progressive watchdog Public Citizen who works on issues related to ethics, lobbying and campaign finance. “It really is dramatically rolling back the ethics requirements for people in the Trump administration.”

There are some guardrails on officials looking to cash in on their government experience, including a one-year lobbying ban for certain senior officials and on foreign lobbying and a two-year lobbying ban for very senior officials such as the vice president. Former President Obama issued his own ethics executive order shortly after he took office in 2009, building upon that foundation.

Trump, who has appointed or nominated five former lobbyists to his Cabinet, issued during his first term his own sweeping restrictions on appointees.

Trump’s ethics order included a lobbyist gift ban, a five-year ban on lobbying their former agencies and lifetime ban on foreign lobbying that would require them to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). But, Holman said, it lacked the teeth to enforce it.

“It was, you know, sort of like an empty gesture to his constituents that he's doing something to drain the swamp. But then he had no one to enforce it, and no one did enforce it,” said Holman.

On the last day of his first term, Trump revoked the ethics requirements and released current and former officials from their commitment as of Jan. 20, 2021.

A White House spokesperson did not respond to questions from The Hill about his decision to revoke Biden's executive order and if Trump planned to issue another ethics order.

Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which sued Trump in 2017 for violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution, said it was “no surprise” that Trump decided to roll back the Biden-era ethics order.

“I struggle to comprehend how President Trump weakening the ethical obligations of his staff will benefit everyday Americans concerned about the price of groceries and public safety, but it's no surprise that a president who spent his first term in the White House accepting payments from corporate lobbyists and foreign agents at his hotel would roll back measures to prevent his administration from accepting gifts from special interests seeking to win influence,” said Sherman.

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