The headquarters of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the parent agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Indianz.Com / Available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Republican president-elect Donald Trump is trying to impose lobbying restrictions on his transition team and on new members of his administration. According to news reports, anyone who wants to work for the incoming president must certify that they are not currently registered as a lobbyist at the federal or state level. Additionally, anyone who ends up joining the administration cannot lobby the federal government for five years after they leave office. The restrictions appear to affect a slew of lobbyists who were already tapped by Trump to serve on his transition team. Included is attorney David Bernhardt, who is heading up efforts at the Department of the Interior.
Records show David Bernhardt, a member of the Donald Trump presidential transition team, registered as a lobbyist for four clients with business before the Department of the Interior. Source: Senate Office of Public Records
Bernhardt formerly served as the top legal official at the department during the final years of the Bush administration. In 2016 alone, he registered as a lobbyist for four clients with business before Interior, including a company that plans to build a copper mine on sacred Tohono O’odham Nation land in Arizona, according to the Senate Office of Public Records. According to Politico, lobbyists on the transition team will be given time to terminate their registrations and people who want to serve in the new administration will be given the same opportunity. At least one lobbyist already filed paperwork with the Senate office to do so, The Washington Post reported. Read More on the Story:
Trump administration will ban lobbyists, enact five-year lobbying ban after leaving government (The Washington Post 11/16)
Trump’s lobbyist ban complicates administration hiring (AP 11/16)
Trump team announces tough lobbying ban (AP 11/16)
Trump's lobbyist ban threatens to hobble transition (Politico 11/17)
Trump Team Sets Broader Limits on Lobbying by Former Staff (The New York Times 11/17)
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