Trump passes new environemental regulations to protect and enhance The Swamp: waivers for Lobbyists
Jun 3, 2017 15:14:56 #
One of Trump's highly touted promises is that he would "drain the swamp." Perhaps this one particular promise was responsible for much of his appeal to certain v**ers and maybe even independents. As a political outsider, many naively believed he would do what he said. Hey, Trump Base--he betrayed you...again!
On 1/28/17, with much ado, President Donald Trump acted Saturday to fulfill a key portion of his pledge to "drain the swamp" in Washington, banning administration officials from ever lobbying the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government and imposing a separate five-year ban on other lobbying. Trump has said individuals who want to aid him in his quest to "Make America Great Again" should focus on the jobs they will be doing to help the American people, not thinking ahead to the future income they could rake in by peddling their influence after serving in government. "Most of the people standing behind me WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GO TO WORK," Trump joked, referring to an array of White House officials who lined up behind him as he sat at his Oval Office desk. The officials included Vice President Mike Pence, chief of staff Reince Priebus, senior strategist STEVE BANNON and counselor KELLYANNE CONWAY. "So you have one last chance to get out." http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/29/trump-imposes-lifetime-ban-on-some-lobbying-five-years-for-others.html
Bannon and Conway both got waivers to continue their work, as well as 12 others in the administration, WITH MORE TO COME, essentially well-stocking, not "draining," The Swamp.
Michael Catanzaro, a former oil and gas lobbyist, can help shape the Trump administration's energy policies. Shahira Knight can weigh in on retirement matters even though she previously worked for Fidelity, a financial company specializing in retirement services. These two basically define 'the swamp,' along with another waiver which explicitly allows Kellyanne Conway, a senior advisor to Trump, to contact and interact with clients of her political polling company, and Joshua Pitcock, who had been Indiana's sole lobbyist in Washington and now serves as Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, is permitted under a waiver to stay in the room when matters involving Indiana arise.
The disclosures come after a tussle between the Office of Government Ethics and White House lawyers. Other executive branch agencies and departments, such as Treasury, State and Defense, are expected to share similar information with OGE by Thursday. The Office of Management and Budget responded to the OGE's request for data last week by saying it had issued zero waivers.
And it gets worse:
Catanzaro and Knight have drawn some of the most intense scrutiny of government watchdogs because their new jobs seem to closely align with their private-sector lobbying. That raised questions about how they were able to circumvent Trump's ethics rules. The answer is spelled out in the new documents: They obtained waivers. As a lobbyist for CGCN Group, Catanzaro's clients included Devon Energy, an oil and gas company based in Oklahoma, and other energy providers. In the Trump administration, he's a special assistant to the president, focusing on energy policies.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-white-house-issues-ethics-waivers-1496333491-htmlstory.html
On 1/28/17, with much ado, President Donald Trump acted Saturday to fulfill a key portion of his pledge to "drain the swamp" in Washington, banning administration officials from ever lobbying the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government and imposing a separate five-year ban on other lobbying. Trump has said individuals who want to aid him in his quest to "Make America Great Again" should focus on the jobs they will be doing to help the American people, not thinking ahead to the future income they could rake in by peddling their influence after serving in government. "Most of the people standing behind me WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GO TO WORK," Trump joked, referring to an array of White House officials who lined up behind him as he sat at his Oval Office desk. The officials included Vice President Mike Pence, chief of staff Reince Priebus, senior strategist STEVE BANNON and counselor KELLYANNE CONWAY. "So you have one last chance to get out." http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/29/trump-imposes-lifetime-ban-on-some-lobbying-five-years-for-others.html
Bannon and Conway both got waivers to continue their work, as well as 12 others in the administration, WITH MORE TO COME, essentially well-stocking, not "draining," The Swamp.
Michael Catanzaro, a former oil and gas lobbyist, can help shape the Trump administration's energy policies. Shahira Knight can weigh in on retirement matters even though she previously worked for Fidelity, a financial company specializing in retirement services. These two basically define 'the swamp,' along with another waiver which explicitly allows Kellyanne Conway, a senior advisor to Trump, to contact and interact with clients of her political polling company, and Joshua Pitcock, who had been Indiana's sole lobbyist in Washington and now serves as Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, is permitted under a waiver to stay in the room when matters involving Indiana arise.
The disclosures come after a tussle between the Office of Government Ethics and White House lawyers. Other executive branch agencies and departments, such as Treasury, State and Defense, are expected to share similar information with OGE by Thursday. The Office of Management and Budget responded to the OGE's request for data last week by saying it had issued zero waivers.
And it gets worse:
Catanzaro and Knight have drawn some of the most intense scrutiny of government watchdogs because their new jobs seem to closely align with their private-sector lobbying. That raised questions about how they were able to circumvent Trump's ethics rules. The answer is spelled out in the new documents: They obtained waivers. As a lobbyist for CGCN Group, Catanzaro's clients included Devon Energy, an oil and gas company based in Oklahoma, and other energy providers. In the Trump administration, he's a special assistant to the president, focusing on energy policies.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-white-house-issues-ethics-waivers-1496333491-htmlstory.html
Jun 3, 2017 16:10:13 #
Jun 4, 2017 02:56:30 #
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