Trump’s Watered-Down Ethics Rules Let a Lobbyist Help Run an Agency He Lobbied

The following article by Justin Elliott was posted on the ProPublica website February 10, 2017:

President Trump’s executive order on ethics also cites a section of the law that doesn’t exist.

President Trump speaks as Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) listens at a Republican retreat on Thursday in Philadelphia. (Pool)

Geoff Burr spent much of the last decade as the chief lobbyist for a powerful construction industry trade group. Burr sought to influence a host of regulations of the Department of Labor, opposing wage standards for federal construction contracts and working against an effort to limit workers’ exposure to dangerous silica dust.

In the Obama administration, someone like Burr would have been barred by ethics rules from taking a job at an agency that he had lobbied. Continue reading “Trump’s Watered-Down Ethics Rules Let a Lobbyist Help Run an Agency He Lobbied”