White House Details Ethics Waivers for Ex-Lobbyists and Corporate Lawyers
-
A few months ago you were a lobbyist for oil and coal companies? Not a problem—you can still work on environmental policy in the Trump White House despite Donald Trump supposedly having drained the swamp. While Trump signed an executive order saying former lobbyists couldn’t work in his regime on issues they’d lobbied on in recent years, the White House has given in to calls to release its ethics waivers, and we now know that he’s granted 16 ethics waivers to allow, for instance, that former oil and coal lobbyist to work on environmental policy. That’s not a hypothetical:
A second waiver was given to Michael Catanzaro, who until January was registered as a lobbyist for companies including Devon Energy, an oil and gas company, and Talen Energy, a coal-burning electric utility. Mr. Catanzaro moved from lobbying against Obama-era environmental rules to overseeing the White House office in charge of rolling back the same rules, an activity permitted by his waiver.
Also receiving a waiver was Shahira Knight, who had been a lobbyist for Fidelity Investments and now serves as a special assistant to the president for tax and retirement policy — the same topic she had lobbied on while working for Fidelity, one of the largest retirement-investment companies in the United States.