Trump institutes ban on lobbying (employment, Congress, lobbyists, dollars)

[stburr91]

Trump keeps delivering on his campaign promises.

Trump institutes lifetime ban on administration officials lobbying foreign governments, 5 years for other lobbying.

I applaud you President Trump.


President Donald Trump acted Saturday to fulfill a key portion of his pledge to "drain the swamp" in Washington, banning administration officials from ever lobbying the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government and imposing a separate five-year ban on other lobbying.

Trump said he talked about the ban a lot during the campaign and "we're now putting it into effect."

Trump imposes lifetime ban on some lobbying, five years for others

[DonJuanQuixote]

[madison999]

wow

[azriverfan.]

Will be interesting to read what the requisite Democratic come back will be "This is bad. Lobbying raises millions of dollars for the homeless in Washington DC. Trump is horrible"

[sickofnyc]

Oh give the turd polishing of the bloviated swindler a rest already. Everyone has already seen the Wall Street banksters, white supremacists and propaganda ministers that he has put in his cabinet.

[jacqueg]

This is an EO, so it's only good for his administration, although his successor could decide to keep it in place.

I'd LOVE to see congress make it permanent, but I doubt congress would pass anything with real teeth.

We'll see.

[0marvin0]

I wonder if a lifetime ban on a specific lawful employment stream will pass constitutional muster. While it sounds good on the surface, as much of populace politics does, the devil is in the details. I would propose the best way to "drain the swamp" would be to pass a constitutional amendment stating that only single subject bills may be brought up in congress and no amendments allowed that aren't directly involved with said bill. Also make congress no longer able to exempt themselves from the laws they pass.

[ritholtz]

Originally Posted by jacqueg

This is an EO, so it's only good for his administration, although his successor could decide to keep it in place.

I'd LOVE to see congress ,are it permanent, but I doubt congress would pass anything with real teeth.

We'll see.

I heard, Congress voted out themselves from insider trading. Anyway this is a decent move by him. Worst move is hastily done travel ban so far.

[middle-aged mom]

Not clear to me who this applies to. What is an Administration Official?

What prevents an " Administrative Official" from defining a lobbying relationship as a consultant or advisor the way Senators and House Members circumvent existing bans?

The ban does not impact Senators or House Members which is where lobbying is most influential.

Unless I missed something, Senators are banned from being employed by a lobby for 2 years while House Members are banned for 1 year. ( See previous comment on how they work around the ban). Seems every year or so a Congress Critter proposes a bill to permanently ban Senators and House Reps from future employment by lobbyists. These bills go nowhere, fast.

[Taratova]

drain the swamp!