White House kicks off new wave of reforms.

• Author: Hickey, David
• Position: ETHICS CORNER

President Obama pledged to make procurement reform a priority through increased transparency and oversight, calling for more frequent audits, increased federal procurement staff, stricter "revolving-door" rules, and fewer sole-source contracts, with restrictions on the role of lobbyists. These pledges, as well as other actions in the president's first few weeks in office, signal that increased ethics restrictions on government appointees, lobbyists and contractors have arrived.

The new focus on government reform is evidenced by his appointment of Norman Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform. Eisen was an ethics advisor to the transition team and co-founder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a non-profit organization focused on government reform.

Upon taking office, the president also signed an executive order aimed at limiting outside influences on political appointees and reducing the role of lobbyists. The executive order requires all administration appointees to pledge that they will not accept gifts from lobbyists. The contractual language also promises that appointees will accept a two-year "reverse" revolving door ban that precludes them, while serving in their government position, from participation in particular matters involving specific parties related to their former employers or former clients. In this context, "particular matters" would include regulations and contracts. Finally, the pledge extends the current statutory ban on certain senior appointee communications with employees from the former Executive Branch agency, from one year to two years.

The president also intends to require registered lobbyists entering the government to pledge that they will neither seek nor accept employment in any Executive Branch agency they lobbied within the previous two years. They must also promise not to participate in any matter in which they were involved before that agency during the previous two years. Finally, all appointees must agree that, upon leaving government service, they will not engage in lobbying before any Executive Branch official or non-career senior executive service appointee for the remainder of the Obama administration.

This executive order contemplates enforcement of the aforementioned pledges, made by appointees, through judicial civil proceedings, a lobbying ban, and payment of fines for a breach or attempted breach of the pledge. As a result of these new restrictions...