Lobbyists will now be allowed to serve on more than 1,000 industry boards. W.H. to reverse part of lobbyist ban

The White House is poised to reverse a key part of its ban on registered lobbyists serving in government.

The Office of Management and Budget will release a new rule on Wednesday expected to allow registered lobbyists to participate in policymaking deliberations in an advisory role after a judge ruled against the administration earlier this year.


Lobbyists for corporations and industry groups will now be allowed to serve on more than 1,000 industry boards, panels and commissions that give the private sector an advisory role in decision-making across the executive branch, according to a copy of the rule published on the Federal Register site.

The new rule affects a policy implemented in June 2010 as part of President Barack Obama’s ethics package, but keeps some of the ban in place. Lobbyists will be allowed to serve only on commissions and boards in a “representative” capacity — so long as they’re acting on behalf of a corporation, trade association or industry group and not as private citizens or representatives of the government.

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The reversal comes amid ongoing debate over the effectiveness of Obama’s efforts to end K Street’s influence on policymaking. A POLITICO count published Tuesday shows that despite restrictions on lobbyists serving in government about 70 corporate, for-hire or association lobbyists have all joined the Obama administration.

The reversal comes after several lobbyists filed a suit claiming their constitutional rights had been violated by the ban. Former National Retail Federation vice president Erik Autor and a number of other trade association lobbyists challenged the rule after being kicked off an Industry Trade Advisory Committee.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the administration’s attempts to get the lawsuit dismissed earlier this year and ordered a lower court to re-examine the administration’s claims.

“I think for our clients in this litigation, this is pretty much a complete victory,” said Charles Rothfeld, a partner with Mayer Brown LLP who represented the association lobbyists in the case.

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“The administration’s policy not only deprived these committees of valuable expertise and advice, but also violated the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment equal protection rights of the Plaintiffs,” Rothfeld said in a written statement. “The government offered no substantial justification for denying these individuals the right to serve on industry trade advisory committees, and the rules actually harmed the public interest in transparency by driving many lobbyists to de-register.”

In its decision, the appeals court also noted that the panels in question were specifically designed to solicit the input of private sector stakeholders — and asked whether it made sense to ban registered lobbyists but not other company representatives like CEOs, top executives and corporate attorneys.

“The court may also want to ask the government to explain how banning lobbyists from committees composed of representatives of the likes of Boeing and General Electric protects the ‘voices of ordinary Americans,’” Judge David Tatel wrote in his decision.

The administration said in a statement that the rule was never designed to restrict the First Amendment rights of lobbyists — only their participation in policymaking and governing.

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“The prohibition is not designed to prevent lobbyists or others from petitioning their government,” a spokesperson for OMB said. “The revised policy now clarifies that the prohibition does not apply when a federally registered lobbyist is appointed to a federal advisory committee for the express purpose of providing the committee with the views of a nongovernmental entity, a recognizable group of persons or nongovernmental entities or state or local government. The prohibition will continue to apply to lobbyists who are appointed to federal advisory committees to exercise their own individual best judgment on behalf of the government,”

Watchdog groups called the decision to retreat from a part of Obama’s ethics reforms disappointing.

“It really shows OMB backpedaling on Obama’s policies dealing with ethics and lobbying activity,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the government watchdog group Public Citizen.

Holman said that while the panels were designed to give corporations and unions a voice in policymaking, lobbyists simply tended to use their role to benefit themselves.

“What registered lobbyists tended to gain out of this was primarily that they could really boast about their special access to government officials and tout that on their résumés — and up their fees,” Holman said.