Top Agencies

Former employees of federal agencies can often find good (and lucrative) jobs as lobbyists, capitalizing on the connections that they forged while in public service. An Environmental Protection Agency administrator may go on to lobby his former colleagues on environmental issues, and a White House staffer can tap her West Wing connections when she starts a new job on K Street. The White House is traditionally the executive branch's largest supplier of fresh lobbyists; the office of the president employs a large team of staffers of varying seniority. But public servants switching to careers as lobbyists (and back again) come from agencies as varied as the Department of Defense, NASA and the Smithsonian Institution. Agency employees strolling through the revolving door include those as powerful—and well connected—as secretaries of state and as far from Washington as Peace Corps volunteers. The agencies shown here have employed the greatest number of former lobbyists—or sent the greatest number of former employees to lobbying firms and interest groups.