Podesta Promises 'Strictest' Ethics Rules from All Content | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

Podesta Promises 'Strictest' Ethics Rules

from All Content | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington by newsig

12 Nov 2008 // President-elect Barack Obama did not employ lobbyists on his campaign, but they can assist with his transition as long as they de-register as lobbyists and their activities do not cross into policy areas they have tried to influence.

Carrying over the anti-lobbying tenets that defined the campaign, Obama transition chief John Podesta announced Tuesday that the president-elect would enforce what he called "the strictest, the most far-reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history."

There is no blanket ban on lobbyists, but they will not be able to do transition work in their area of expertise if they lobbied in the past 12 months, nor can they lobby the administration for 12 months afterward on matters on which they worked during the transition.

"I've heard the other complaint, which is we're leaving all this expertise on the side, because we're leaving all the people who know everything out in the cold. And so be it," Podesta told reporters at the transition office in Washington. "That's a commitment that the American public expects … and it's one that we intend to enforce during the transition, I know he intends to enforce in his government, so that the undue influence of Washington lobbyists and the revolving door of Washington ceases to exist."

Podesta made the announcement at the first formal briefing of the Obama transition, an operation that he said spans Washington and Chicago, employs 450 individuals, and works from a budget of $12 million — half of which was appropriated by Congress and half of which will be acquired from individual donors. Just as during the campaign, Obama will not accept money from political action committees, lobbyists or corporations.

Podesta suggested that Cabinet-level appointments may not come until after Thanksgiving, citing historical precedent that no president since John F. Kennedy has made such announcements until December. "We're going to try to accelerate that, but we'll make announcements when we're ready to make them," Podesta said, adding that they would most likely occur in Chicago, where Obama is living during the transition.

The transition team will send review teams Monday into 100 federal agencies to gather information that Obama needs "to make strategic policy, budgetary and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration," Podesta said.

The names of review team members will be disclosed by the end of the week, as part of what Podesta said would be the "most open and transparent transition in history."

Podesta reiterated that Obama will steer clear of the Bush administration's global financial summit this weekend, saying there is only one president at a time and "it's not appropriate for, you know, two people to show up at this meeting."

The president-elect and the vice president-elect have both rejected requests to sit down with world leaders attending the summit. But the transition team is arranging meetings among representatives and "we'll be kept informed both in advance of the meeting and, I'm sure, what takes place during the course of the meeting," Podesta said.

As for the composition of the Cabinet, Podesta said Obama will make more than "token-level" appointments of Republicans and independents.

"I think his commitment is to deepen that," Podesta said, "and to look even just beyond the Cabinet, to try to bring people who agree with the direction that he wants to take the country, and regardless of party, to serve in the government."

Following similar comments made earlier in the day by White House press secretary Dana Perino, Podesta took issue with news reports characterizing the Oval Office conversation Monday between Bush and Obama as one of quid pro quos on the economic stimulus package, the aid to automakers and the Colombia free trade agreement.

"While the topic of Colombia came up, there was no quid pro quo in the conversation," Podesta said. "The president didn't link Colombia to the question of an economic recovery package going forward."

Podesta, who spoke with White House chief of staff Josh Bolten on Tuesday, said there were no hard feelings between the White House and the Obama transition teams.

"When we have a disagreement, we know how to pick up the phone and talk to one another," Podesta said.