Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said Thursday she wants to implement new ethics rules that would require former senior military officers and top Pentagon civilians wait at least four years before they can be employed by private defense contractors who do business with the U.S. Defense Department.

Watchdog groups for years have decried the revolving door of retired generals, admirals and civilian brass who jump from their Pentagon posts to lucrative positions at major defense contractors who do billions of dollars of business annually with the U.S. government.

Warren, a Massachusetts senator, said her proposal is needed to help stem undue influence of profit-motivated defense corporations on national security decisions that ultimately impact taxpayers.

“My proposal would fundamentally change the way Washington does business, taking power in Washington away from the powerful and the well-connected and putting it back in the hands of the American people,” Warren said.

In addition to the four-year cooling off period, Warren’s proposal would require defense contractors to submit annual reports to the Pentagon regarding former senior Defense Department officials they’ve hired.

Her plan also bans senior Pentagon officials from owning stock in a major defense contractor and bans Defense Department employees from owning any stock in contractors if the employee can use their position to influence the stock’s value.

Currently, laws on the books prohibit lobbying by former officers for one-to-two years after they leave the Defense Department. But there are two dozen exceptions in the federal statute that allow contractors to employ the former high-ranking officers for “business development” and other behind-the-scene activities, according to the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight.

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The group published a report last year that tracked at least 380 high-ranking former Defense Department officials and military officers who recently took jobs as lobbyists, board members, executives or consultants for defense contractors. About a quarter of those former officials went to work for one of the Defense Department’s five biggest contractors – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics.

Warren also is recommending a series of steps to bolster transparency of the defense industry's relationship with top military officials. She wants to require the secretary of defense publish copies of all Pentagon contracts worth more than $10 million, establish public websites that would detail financial disclosures by senior military officials, and make defense contractors subject to federal open records laws.

The legislation, which Warren said she will introduce with co-sponsor California Rep. Jackie Speier, will certainly be difficult to get through the Republican-controlled Senate.

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But the proposal offers Warren a chance to highlight President Trump’s follow-through on his 2016 campaign promise to “drain the swamp” of special interest groups that he said had too much influence on how Washington works.

Trump's Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is a former top Boeing executive, who has faced unsubstantiated accusations from the federal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics that he disparaged Boeing's competitors to his subordinates. Warren’s office also forwarded allegations to the Defense Department inspector general that Shanahan used his position to pressure military services to purchase Boeing aircraft.

The inspector general last month found all allegations against Shanahan unsubstantiated. Trump recently nominated Shanahan to permanently take over at the Pentagon.

“The IG (inspector general) cleared Secretary Shanahan of breaking existing ethics rules – but his obvious potential conflicts of interest remain,” Warren said. “The truth is that our existing laws are far too weak to effectively limit the undue influence of giant military contractors at the Department of Defense. The response of Congress shouldn’t be to confirm Shanahan. It should be to change the rules.”

The proposal is the latest in a string of policy pitches by Warren, who is trying to demonstrate to voters that she's got the big ideas that should set her apart in the crowded field of Democrats vying to be the party's 2020 presidential nominee.

In recent weeks, she's unveiled plans to forgive student loan debt entirely for 76% of Americans, a $100 billion plan to combat opioid addiction, a universal child care program and expand affordable housing.