Bush's_revolving_doors_-_When_advocates_become_regulators

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GMW:_Bush's_revolving_doors_-_When_advocates_become_regulators

" GM_Watch "

Tue, 25 May 2004 12:57:29 +0100

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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excellent article but this is not a new issue - for more on Government-industry

revolving doors

 

The Revolving Door: US Government Workers & University Researchers Go Biotech. .

.. .

.. . . and Back Again.

http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Revolving-Door.htm

 

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Government-industry_revolving_door

 

for profiles of advocates-turned-regulators accompanying this article:

http://media.mnginteractive.com/media/paper36/0523lobbyg.gif

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When advocates become regulators

Denver Post,

http://www.denverpost.com/framework/0,1413,36~11676~2164693,00.html

May 23 2004

 

President Bush has installed more than 100 top officials who were once

lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee.

By Anne C. Mulkern

Denver Post Staff Writer

 

Washington - In a New York City ballroom days before Christmas, a powerful Bush

administration lawyer made an unprecedented offer to drug companies, one likely

to protect their profits and potentially hurt consumers.

 

Daniel E. Troy, lead counsel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, extended

the government's help in torpedoing certain lawsuits. Among Troy's targets:

claims that medications caused devastating and unexpected side effects.

 

Pitch us lawsuits that we might get involved in, Troy told several hundred

pharmaceutical attorneys, some of them old friends and acquaintances from his

previous role representing major U.S. pharmaceutical firms.

 

The offer by the FDA's top attorney, made Dec. 15 at the Plaza Hotel, took the

agency responsible for food and drug safety into new territory.

 

" The FDA is now in the business of helping lawsuit defendants, specifically the

pharmaceutical companies, " said James O'Reilly, University of Cincinnati law

professor and author of a book on the history of the FDA. " It's a dramatic

change in what the FDA has done in the past. "

 

Troy's switch from industry advocate to industry regulator overseeing his former

clients is a hallmark of President Bush's administration.

 

Troy is one of more than 100 high-level officials under Bush who helped govern

industries they once represented as lobbyists, lawyers or company advocates, a

Denver Post analysis shows.

 

In at least 20 cases, those former industry advocates have helped their agencies

write, shape or push for policy shifts that benefit their former industries.

They knew which changes to make because they had pushed for them as industry

advocates.

 

The president's political appointees are making or overseeing profound changes

affecting drug laws, food policies, land use, clean-air regulations and other

key issues.

 

Government watchdogs call it a disturbing trend, not adequately restrained by

existing ethics laws.

 

Among the advocates-turned-regulators are a former meat-industry lobbyist who

helps decide how meat is labeled; a former drug-company lobbyist who influences

prescription-drug policies; a former energy lobbyist who, while still accepting

payments for bringing clients into his old lobbying firm, helps determine how

much of the West those former clients can use for oil and gas drilling.

 

" When you go to work in lobbying, it is clearly understood and accepted that

your job is to advocate for the interests of those who hired you, " said Terry L.

Cooper, a University of Southern California ethics and government professor.

" When you go to work in government, you are supposed to be responsible for

upholding and maintaining whatever you can identify as the public interest. "

 

The Bush administration says the regulators were chosen for their abilities.

 

" The president appoints highly qualified individuals who make their decisions

based on the best interests of the American people, " said White House spokesman

Jim Morrell. " Any individual serving in the administration must abide by strict

legal and ethical guidelines, including full disclosure of past lobbying

activities. "

 

Six of the former industry advocates have faced ethics investigations or

resigned amid conflict-of-interest charges. Those and at least 14 others have

been lambasted by public-interest groups.

 

Government ethics standards are part of the problem because they don't fully

address the kind of issues that now permeate Washington, Cooper and some inside

government say. The rules focus mainly on direct financial conflicts. Other,

more nuanced

conflicts aren't addressed

 

" There are so many ways around, over and under these (ethics) bans... they

almost never work, " said Paul Light, who for decades has studied the appointment

process for the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington. " They're more

screen doors than steel doors. "

 

A March 16 report from the Interior Department's inspector general, for example,

concluded that department's " byzantine " conflict-of-interest rules were " wholly

incapable " of addressing ethical questions involving a former energy lobbyist,

J. Steven Griles, as the department's No. 2 official.

 

The report called the department's ethics system " a train wreck waiting to

happen. "

 

Bringing bias to a federal job isn't new. Presidents of all political

persuasions have appointed people who shared their party's values.

 

As president, Bill Clinton peppered the federal bureaucracy with Democratic

state officials, lawyers and advocates from various environmental or

public-interest groups.

 

Only a handful of registered lobbyists worked for Clinton, however.

 

Bush's embrace of lobbyists marks a key difference because it allows " those who

are affected by the regulations to determine what the ground rules should be, "

said David Cohen, co-director of the

Advocacy Institute, which helps teach nonprofits how to lobby in Washington.

 

While previous Republican presidents hired lobbyists, " the Bush administration

has made it rise in geometric proportions, " Cohen said, meaning Bush is

" capturing the instruments of government

and using them for the ends " that favor Bush's political supporters.

 

" In the Bush administration, " said U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., " the foxes

are guarding the foxes, and the middle-class hens are getting plucked. "

 

Republicans and their lobbying allies reject the idea that industry is embedded

in the administration.

 

" Foxes? No, " Vice President Dick Cheney told The Denver Post. " I think we have a

good track record. "

 

The clout of industry is balanced by the power of labor unions, trial lawyers

and public-interest groups, said Jerry Jasinowski, chairman of the National

Association of Manufacturers.

 

" The notion that somehow business gets everything and we've gotten a free ride

is absurd, " he said.

 

Still, the lobbyists-turned-policymakers control or influence health care, food

safety, land use, the environment and other issues touched by government.

---

for profiles of advocates-turned-regulators:

http://media.mnginteractive.com/media/paper36/0523lobbyg.gif

---

EXCERPTS ONLY:

 

HEALTH CARE

 

*Ann-Marie Lynch

 

The drug-industry lobbyist who fought price controls joined the Health and Human

Services Department and has helped drug companies avoid the limits.

 

*Thomas A. Scully

 

The former hospital lobbyist presided over an agency that helped a chain he once

represented win a favorable settlement in a Medicare fraud case.

 

Thomas A. Scully represented the nation's for-profit hospitals as a lobbyist

before being hired by the Bush administration in June 2001 to head the federal

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

 

Eight months after Scully arrived at the Medicare and Medicaid agency, it moved

to settle final claims involving HCA Inc., a hospital chain that was the biggest

member of Scully's former employer, the Federation of American Hospitals. HCA

Inc. faced allegations it fraudulently overbilled the government for Medicare

cases.

 

Under the terms agreed to in June 2002 by Scully's agency, HCA would have

settled for $250 million. Medicare fraud cases typically are ironed out with

Justice Department participation, but Scully agreed to those terms on his own,

said John R. Phillips, an attorney who represented whistle-blowers in the case.

 

The $250 million was a total sellout by Scully, who totally negotiated it behind

Justice's back, " Phillips said.

 

Scully has since left the administration for consulting jobs with a lobbying

firm and an investment company that represent Medicare providers.

 

*Daniel E. Troy

The lawyer who represented major drug companies still fights for causes that

benefit them as chief counsel at the Food and Drug Administration.

 

*FOOD SAFETY

Charles Lambert

 

As a USDA official, the former lobbyist for the meat industry whoopposed

labeling told a hearing that mad cow disease was not a threat.

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

Jeffrey Holmstead

 

The EPA official, a lawyer, formerly worked for a firm that represents utility

companies, which are among the biggest air polluters.

 

When the Environmental Protection Agency issued proposed changes to air

pollution rules Jan. 30, the wording troubled Martha Keating, a scientist with

environmental advocacy group Clear the Air.

 

" It struck me that I had seen this before, " Keating said.

 

At least 12 paragraphs were identical to or closely resembled a Sept. 4, 2003,

proposal given to the Bush administration by Latham & Watkins, a law firm that

represents utility companies.

 

The EPA official overseeing the proposed changes is Jeffrey Holmstead, who until

he joined the EPA in October 2001 had worked as a lawyer at Latham & Watkins.

His clients included a chemical company and a trade group for utility companies.

Power

plants are among the biggest air polluters.

 

Holmstead oversees the EPA division that governs air pollution.

 

Environmental groups say the rewrite poses a health threat because it slows the

reduction of mercury emissions by as much as 11 years. Those emissions can end

up in water where they contaminate fish. Forty-three states have issued

advisories about fish consumption because of mercury pollution, the U.S. Public

Interest Research Group said.

 

LAND USE

 

J. Steven Griles

 

The tenure of the veteran energy lobbyist at the Interior Department was labeled

an " ethical quagmire " by the agency's inspector general.

 

Review of ethics guidelines

 

Neither the Bush administration nor Congress has called for a systematic review

of government's ethics guidelines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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