Trump revokes his lobbying ban on former White House staffers just hours before his administration leaves office
Getty
- President Trump has revoked his own rule which prevented political officials from lobbying their former colleagues in one of his last acts as president.
- Trump originally imposed a lobbying ban in January 2017, just weeks after took office having pledged to "drain the swamp."
- The president's decision follows reports that Trump administration staffers are struggling in their search for jobs.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
President Trump has revoked his own rule which prevented political officials from lobbying their former colleagues just hours before his administration was due to leave the White House
The president late on Tuesday night issued an executive order, titled "Executive Order on the Revocation of Executive Order 13770," revoking a rule he imposed in 2017 which prevented staffers from lobbying federal agencies and former colleagues for 5 years after leaving office.
"Employees and former employees subject to the commitments in Executive Order 13770 will not be subject to those commitments after noon January 20, 2021," the order reads, meaning the order will take effect at the same time Biden is scheduled to be inaugurated on Wednesday.
It means that appointees in the Trump administration would be able to take up often-lucrative lobbying jobs in Washington, DC, immediately.
Trump originally imposed a lobbying ban in January 2017, just weeks after took office having pledged to "drain the swamp." Trump used the metaphor partly to describe what he said was the damaging effect of the lobbying industry within Washington, DC.
Trump's decision follows reports that Trump administration staffers are struggling regularly in their search for jobs. One public-relations recruiter told Insider that they had attempted to place 6 people from the Trump administration in jobs but had failed to secure even one interview.
"Morally, it's hard for people to want to work with them," the recruiter told Insider.
The outgoing president has issued a flurry of executive orders in recent days as he prepares to leave office, including one calling for a statue park of "American heroes" and one lifting a COVID-19 travel ban on foreign nationals arriving from Brazil and much of Europe.
Biden plans to issue his own series of executive orders on his first day in office to signal a break with the Trump era, his chief of staff Ron Klein said.
Orders are likely to include a reversal of Trump's decision to lift the travel ban as well as one terminating the permit for the controversial Keystone pipeline project.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/35ZOkGt
No comments