Ethics Newsline®

WASHINGTON
More than 220 government officials have spent time on the payrolls of the country’s top 20 federal contractors over the past seven years, according to a new report released last week by a watchdog group.

The report from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) highlights what is widely known as the revolving door — lawmakers’ cozy relationship with the federal contractors they once regulated or worked for.

“The revolving door has become such an accepted part of federal contracting in recent years that it is frequently difficult to determine where the government stops and the private sector begins,” the report said.

Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, has taken the most turns in the revolving door, with 57 senior government officials on the payroll at some point. Boeing (33), Raytheon (23), Northrop Grumman (20), and General Dynamics (19) were next in line, reported the Washington Post.

Prompted by a recent scandal involving a senior Defense official hired by Boeing after helping the company negotiate a controversial contract, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plans to hold hearings on the subject this month.

But others say the system is working fine, making for better products and services by facilitating a give-and-take between regulators, lawmakers, corporate boards, and company executives with real-world experience.

“Who do you want designing equipment that is going to be used in combat? Individuals who have been on the battlefield,” Lockheed spokesman Tom Jurkowsky, a former Navy officer, told the Post.

And while some people overstep, former Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Calif.), who now works for a firm that lobbies his former colleagues, says there are ways that companies can stay in the clear.

Having a former member of Congress as a director is a good way “of keeping [a company] in touch with that world,” Fazio, who serves on Northrop Grumman’s board, told the Post. “I do not lobby for them.”

Last week’s report contends that more safeguards are needed, according to United Press International.

“Legal loopholes need to be closed, conflicts of interest and ethics laws need to be simplified, and the entire process needs to be open to public scrutiny,” POGO general counsel Scott Amey told UPI.