President Joe Biden will ban his senior advisers from accepting lucrative bonuses from their former employers for joining his administration in an effort to curb efforts by companies to influence the White House’s agenda, according to a transition official.
Biden is poised to sign an executive order on Wednesday that also prohibits top administration appointees from lobbying senior White House staff after they leave the government, an addition to the current ban against trying to influence former agency colleagues, the person said.
The restrictions will also apply to what’s known as “shadow lobbying,” in which former officials advise their new K Street colleagues how to influence the White House and their former agencies.
The ethics order is one of as many as 17 executive actions Biden is expected to sign on his first half-day in office.
Biden is aiming to impose lobbying restrictions that are more robust than the rules put in place by either President Barack Obama or President Donald Trump, signaling a tightening of the revolving door between government and corporate interests in Washington.
Professionals who spend at least 20 percent of their time representing clients’ interests to decision-makers are required to file a quarterly report disclosing their contacts under lobbying laws. Disclosures are also required from those who are paid by a client to make more than one contact with decision makers in Washington.
In the final hours of his presidency, Trumprevoked his administration’s ethics pledge banning political appointees from lobbying the agencies where they worked for five years after leaving the government. Trump’s order also banned former political appointees from lobbying work for a foreign government or political party.
Biden’s team has said it also plans to resume publicly releasing White House visitor logs, a practice Trump stopped when he entered office.
— With assistance by Nancy Cook
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