There has been a wave of lobbyist deregistrations in the past couple of weeks after the incoming Trump transition team announced that registered lobbyists will not be able to serve in the transition process or in the administration. The Washington Post reports that “As part of the new policy, every person who joins the administration will be asked to sign a form that states they are not a registered lobbyist. If they are, they will have to provide evidence of their termination.”
However, according to The Washington Post some critics argue that “This kind of snap immunity demonstrates the flaw in the apparent Trump approach focusing on lobbying conflicts to the exclusion of other kinds,” said Norm Eisen, chief White House ethics lawyer in the Obama administration. “There are also a huge amount of non-lobbying conflicts both coming into and leaving a transition … that Trump’s emerging ethics structure does not seem to adequately address.”
The incoming administration has not only shaken the status quo for individual lobbyists, but has also changed the way businesses are going to handle government relations over the next four years. The Wall Street Journal reports, “Businesses are moving from defense to offense,” said Hunter Bates, a partner at law and lobbying firm Akin Gump and onetime chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.). “What we’re about to see is a host of issues going from gridlock to the goal line.”
Many major issues for businesses, such as immigration, health care, the tax code, infrastructure and Wall Street regulations. According to “Matthew Johnson, a Republican lobbyist at Podesta Group, one of Washington’s top lobbying firms… If Mr. Trump and Congress take action on immigration, health care and other areas, he said, “That is a full plate. That’s a legislative bonanza.”
