Donald Trump, implementing what one news outlet called a “tough lobbying ban“, swept several registered lobbyists out of his transition team last week — only to replace them on Monday with new officials heavily involved with lobbying for the same industry interests.
The junk food lobbyist overseeing the agency that is responsible for the federal school lunch program will be replaced — by a former junk food lobbyist.
The Koch Industries lobbyist who was overseeing transition efforts on energy and the environment will be replaced — by a former Koch Industries lobbyist who leads a think tank funded by Koch Industries.
The Trump transition-team ethics standards requires officials to deregister as lobbyists and agree to a five-year lobbying ban. But the rules do not preclude officials who have recently worked in the lobbying industry or currently work in the lobbying industry without having explicitly registered as lobbyists.
The rules prompted three Trump transition officials to depart on Friday: Michael Torrey, Michael Catanzaro and Mike McKenna, all of whom are registered lobbyists.
Torrey was set to handle the handoff at the Department of Agriculture, which manages the school lunch program and other food programs such as SNAP, but he currently counts a number of junk food companies as clients, including the American Beverage Association, which represents soda companies like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, as well as Dean Foods.
Torrey’s replacement, announced on Monday, is Joel Leftwich, a congressional staffer who just last year worked as a senior lobbyist for PepsiCo, which not only makes soda products, but is also the maker of brands like Cheetos, Doritos, and Frito-Lay. Leftwich previously helped his firm weaken nutritional standards from the agency he will now help shape.
Leftwich earned $354,041 from PepsiCo as the company’s senior lobbyist, according to his ethics disclosure, but left his lobbying position in 2015, qualifying him for a seat on the Trump transition this year.
Michael Catanzaro, who was set to oversee the transition at the Department of Energy, is a registered lobbyist for fossil fuel giant Koch Industries.
Catanzaro’s departure on Friday made way for Thomas Pyle as his replacement.
Pyle is currently the president of the Institute for Energy Research, a think tank founded directly by Charles Koch, the chief executive of Koch Industries, and also funded by Koch-backed nonprofits. IER broadly supports more drilling and mining of fossil fuels, and regularly criticizes climate change scientists for daring to call for controls on pollution. Before joining IER, Pyle worked as a registered lobbyist for Koch Industries and served as the Koch Industries Director of Federal Affairs, a lobbying job, from 2001 through 2005.
The Trump transition rules mean that other officials deeply involved in professional influence peddling will continue with official roles on the Trump transition.
Some may simply deregister and continue to go about their lobbying careers, a phenomenon that has accelerated since President Barack Obama implemented his own prohibitions on lobbyists in his administration.
Take, for example, Rebecca Rosen, a lobbyist with Devon Energy, a drilling company heavily involved in fracking, who is also advising the transition on energy issues. E&E News reported that Rosen deregistered as a lobbyist last week, suggesting “she intends to continue to work for the transition.” She may even continue her role in Devon’s government affairs team, which deals with lobbying.
For others agents of influence who never decided to register in the first place, the Trump ethics rules are an irrelevance.
Mike Dougherty, a former Bush administration official, is helping with the Trump transition team effort at the Department of Homeland Security. Dougherty is the current president of the Secure Identity & Biometrics Association, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of private contractors for equipment used for screening at airports, border crossings, and other security-related venues. The group boasts on its website of influencing the agencies and congressional affairs, but Dougherty is not a registered lobbyist, making him perfectly acceptable for the Trump transition.
Speaking of replacing, it looks as though he really will replace earth science with earth religion.(
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/22/nasa-earth-donald-trump-eliminate-climate-change-research
All those inconvenient truths will be easier to hide as NASA satellites for studying the earth get shut down, or at least funds for studying the data from them are lost.
I find it extremely hilarious (so much so that I tore rib muscle… Fact) that the fools who voted for Don Drumpf believed he would do what he promised. He’s not even president yet and he’s scratching shit off the to do list as impossible or too “divisive”! HIS WHOLE CAMPAIGN WAS DIVISIVE!!! How hilarious is that!??? And, oh god!, I CANNOT wait until he appoints Mitt! This will be the biggest swing to the middle since Casey Jones!!!! LMAO!!! These tears OMG! THESE TEARS!!!
The problem of Washington corruption is not lobbyists per se, but the revolving door. A former law maker may be rewarded with a seat on the board of directors, which doesn’t require registering as a lobbyist. People have always traded influence for favors and they always will.
When you drain the swamp, the alligators may move out, but the hyenas move in.
One should be mindful of revolving doors, but I’ve never met a corrupt alligator or hyena, benitoe.
*do me a favor and leave the animals out of this …
Making a montain out of mole hill?
Gotcha article?
To be fair you need people with experience, not just with the field but also working in DC. I think that someone like that in DC that is looking for a job is hard to find.
“To be fair you need people with experience, not just with the field but also working in DC. I think that someone like that in DC that is looking for a job is hard to find.” That is a string of self-serving falsehoods. You seem to really be missing the most basic thing here.
Yeah, he completely missed it. Sad.
Saying one thing while doing the opposite.
Such behavior worked for Bush (both), Obama, Clinton (both), Sanders,
and pretty much all of the democrat/republican candidates for any
office in the D.C.
Why doesn’t it work for Trump?
Is it because his obnoxiousness is too blatant and in the faking U$A
is there an overwhelming NEED for lies to smoother?
As much as I find Trump to be repugnant, it is significant that
he is not really much different from most of the power seekers
on Wall Street and in Washington in his actions.
Enter the Trumpian rabbit hole of no return.
Trump’s strategy is to always keep everyone guessing. To say one thing and do the other. Every alleged appointment discussion is all part of his ‘theater’. He is staging The Apprentice, but for real.
He and his army of surrogates will claim he is not being dishonest, but just doing good business. Being shrewd in his choices. Playing people against each other.
Any person who acts in such a controlling manner would NEVER trust a third party to run their real estate empire.
Such a person cannot function outside the loop they are the center of.
This is where the line between public responsibility and private interest becomes a potential, pathological battlefield that will end one way (into dictatorship) or the other ( into impeachment). Vegas should take wagers.
Duped by don the con. Create more swamp!
He’ gonna do this,,,,He’s gonna do that,,,,He’s gonna repeal the Law of Gravity !!
WTF has happened to The Intercept !
Trump took lying by a politician to the next level. He played his supporters like a fiddle
Every last one. And I love it!
So, basically, the swamp isn’t drained yet and it has been a couple of weeks since the election.
Don’t worry. He’ll burn down the swamp.
Er … blow it up.
Um … sell it to the Russians.
Er … drain it into Virginia
I know! He’ll build a hotel over it with an attached lobbyists only golf course.
It will be the best golf course ever built.
He’ll call it “The Great American.”
No Muslims, no Mexicans. No Democrats. No middle class. It will be built by a Mexican company that he’ll stiff.
You’re right. It will take some time. Probably not until a day or so after he eliminates the EPA.
Making America great again will just have to wait because who can rebuild anything without first demolishing the old buildings?
Trump is the duly elected President (elect) of the United States.
I’ll give him a chance, just like I did Obama.
He’s not the “duly elected President,” (very strong evidence the voting machines were gamed in key states, and he lost the popular vote) and I’m not gonna give the schmuck the benefit of the doubt, no more than I did to Dubya and Cheney. (Clinton and company very likely cheated in certain states during the primary–shit cuts both ways, and that’s no surprise.) You’re gonna give him a chance? Aww, how nice. That’s just phony concern posturing, however. I say, hound the bastard and cut him no slack. He’s still the same criminal fraud he was before; after 9-11 many of Dubya’s very recent detractors found him to be an upstanding fella all of a sudden. The same bad motives are at work here.
quoteI’ll give him a chance, ….”unquote
Overheard in a Jewish bagel shop..Berlin.. 1936.
YESSSSSSSSSS!
FAKE NEWS again.
Trump doesn’t have power of the pen, yet.
The CURRENT REGULATIONS on lobbying have to be nullified. CURRENT REGULATIONS were created of/by/for THE SWAMP.
So… they are doing what is already written.
God you guys are dumb.
That’s a bullshit excuse, this is Trump’s OWN transition team. He makes the rules in regards to who gets to be on the team, and Trump is letting all these lobbyists through.
>>> That’s a bullshit excuse <<<
The regulations still have the force of law as they are published in the Federal Register.
Until Trump gets in… he can't do anything about it. Yet, he still has to figure out how to fill about 4000 positions.
You think he can hire people out of the ghettos?
“DONALD TRUMP’S TRANSITION team has announced that everyone being vetted for a high-level appointment must pledge not to become a registered lobbyist for five years after they leave Trump’s administration — and never lobby for a foreign government.”
No, these are Trump’s own terms. And he has the power to appoint whoever he wants. He’s not legally obligated to hire lobbyists. Are you guys really going to spend the next 4-8 years rationalizing? Like the guy who bought an HD-DVD player, chuckling at all those Blu-Ray numbskulls. After all, you spent too much money to be wrong now.
See my previous response to Uzoma.
Whatever the excuse, business as usual then. Those 4000 positions are still part of the swamp after all.
LMAO!!!!
He can put whoever he wants in his administration. What are you talking about???
Donald Trump is great with soundbites . . . Not so great with the truth…. Dictator Donald will leave his footprint on your backside. . . . as they say there is only one leader – great or not so great – – – only one and it is not you. I am still trying to understand this election – when all is said and done I do not think anyone will be happy – – THERE WILL BE NO WINNERS – – – ONLY LOSERS
Well all things being equal, I think the Pepsi-Co and Frito Lay lobbyists are probably down on the list of lobbyists we really need to be concerned about. Not to say they are no risk, or that there general worldview isn’t problematic with regard to the role transnational mega-corps play (and some of the human rights abuses they fund and perpetuate directly or indirectly), but I’ve got bigger concerns with health insurance lobbyists, big pharm, military industrial complex contractors and manufacturers, the Pentagon, big energy, big banking . . . .