Obama Executive Order #2: Ethics restrictions for political appointees and lobbyists

President Barack Obama hit the oval office ground running. He has made it abundantly clear that his administration will follow a different set of standards than the previous one did, and he closely allied his standards with the law and constitution:

“I will also hold myself as President to a new standard of openness,” Obama said during a meeting with senior administration staff. “Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

From Day 1 of his presidency, he began issuing key executive orders that fulfilled campaign promises. In this article, learn about his Executive Order -- Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel.

In one of his first executive orders issued, Obama fulfilled a campaign promise to reform ethics. During his campaign, Obama made three ethics pledges:

• Barack Obama will centralize ethics and lobbying information for voters:

  Obama and Biden will create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings.

• Require independent monitoring of lobbying laws and ethics rules:

  Obama and Biden will fight for an independent watchdog agency to oversee the investigation of congressional ethics violations.

• Close the revolving door on former and future employers:

  No political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration.

This order tightens ethics rules about government employees and lobbyists with "revolving door bans" that are applicable for a period of two years and "lobbyist gift bans" that are applicable for the duration of the appointment.

The "lobbyist gift bans" forbid administration officials from accepting gifts in any amount or in any form from registered lobbyists or lobbying organizations for the duration of their service as an appointee. Although there have been ethics guidelines about accepting gifts before, they were broad and included many loopholes, thereby leaving a wide swath of ways lobbyists could influence executive appointees. This ban is absolute.

Obama should have support of this ban from the congressional branch, which has been considering a similar ethics guideline for congressmen and women since 2006.

The "revolving door bans" eliminate conflicts of interest by creating a before, during and after restriction of lobbying.

The "before ban" covers three points and bans appointees from:

(a)  participating in any particular matter on which they lobbied within the 2 years before the date of their appointment;

 (b)  participating in the specific issue area in which that particular matter falls; or

 (c)  seeking or accepting employment with any executive agency that they lobbied within the 2 years before the date of their appointment.

The "during ban" forbids appointees from fulfilling favors---aka lobbying for---former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts, during the time they are serving the government.

The "after ban" reiterates that appointees will abide by existing post employment restrictions on communicating with employees for two years, and will also not lobby any covered executive branch official or non career Senior Executive Service appointee for the remainder of the Administration.

According to the order, "Every appointee in every executive agency appointed on or after January 20, 2009, shall sign, and upon signing shall be contractually committed to, the following pledge upon becoming an appointee."

You can read the pledge in its entirety here.