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Government Ethics
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President-elect Biden has previously supported broad reform initiatives, like HR 1.
Reform groups renew unanswered call for support from Biden
Jan 04 2021
Democracy reform advocates, still hoping for a significant statement of support from Joe Biden, have asked the president-elect to kick off the new year by pledging to prioritize their agenda.
One week after the election, 170 good-government and voting rights groups called on Biden to back their proposals. They believe that tackling corruption and strengthening democracy are of the utmost importance following the still-contentious presidential election. But Biden has yet to elevate that agenda.
While Biden cannot take any official action until Jan. 20, the 117th Congress convened Monday and can begin legislating right away So these groups are also hoping Speaker Nancy Pelosi keeps her word and once again focuses the first House bill on broad election, anti-corruption and voting rights reforms, like she did two years ago with legislation known as HR 1.
<p>Fifty democracy reform groups sent a <a href="https://declarationforamericandemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/12-23DFADBidenletter-1.pdf" target="_blank">letter</a> to the incoming administration before the new year, asking Biden and Harris to back their agenda and use the bully pulpit to boost public support for reform efforts. Both Biden and Harris have previously supported HR 1 and other reform initiatives, but Biden less than other Democratic presidential contenders.<br></p>
<p>Four issues top the groups' agenda: safeguarding voting rights by ensuring every person can cast a ballot safely and securely; ending the corrupting power of big money in politics by increasing transparency around <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/dark-money" target="_self">dark money</a> and strengthening election oversight; restoring ethics and accountability in Washington by reducing the power of lobbyists and fortifying conflict-of-interest rules; and protecting the rule of law by restoring the Constitutional system of checks and balances.</p>
<p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>In November, Pelosi said in a <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-9df8-d665-a1ff-9ff8eb560000" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">letter</a> to Biden and Harris that reform proposals such as these would be her first priority in the House, and legislation would be introduced and passed on the first day of the new Congress.</p>
<p>In addition to supporting legislative proposals, the groups urge Biden to also use executive orders to encourage broader transparency around White House affairs and election spending. They also suggest Biden appoint someone on his staff to lead these democracy reform efforts.</p>
<p>"Too many Americans have lost faith that their elected officials can address our country's challenges," the groups wrote in the letter. "By supporting, championing and prioritizing bold reforms like HR 1 and implementing comprehensive ethics and transparency plans for your administration, we can restore ethics and accountability in government."</p>
<p><a href="http://thefulcrum.us/american-promise" target="_self">American Promise</a>, <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/common-cause" target="_self">Common Cause</a>, <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/end-citizens-united" target="_self">End Citizens United</a>/Let America Vote Action Fund, <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/maplight" target="_self">MapLight</a>, <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/representus" target="_self">RepresentUs</a> and 45 other civil society groups signed the letter.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p>
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Walter Bibikow/Getty Images
A question for Joe Biden: If lobbying is the problem in Washington, as you claim, then why does your team include lobbyists?
Biden's ban on lobbyists in his administration would be unwise and discriminatory
Dec 17 2020
Miller is board chairman of the National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics, the advocacy profession's trade association, and principal of the lobbying firm Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies.
<p>When you join the lobbying profession, you know immediately you become Public Enemy No. 1. Frankly, you can't blame the public for feeling this way. </p>
<p>As a profession we let Washington define who we are and how we operate. We don't have a bully pulpit the way candidates, members of Congress and presidents do. We do not have a public forum where the people can hear us. </p>
<p>When attacks come, we bury our heads in the sand and don't stand up for ourselves and what we do. We simply hide and wait for the onslaught to pass. It's easy for elected officials to blame lobbyists for the dysfunction in Washington, the alternative being for them to look in the mirror and point the finger at themselves for their direct failures on behalf of those who elected them. When in doubt, create a boogeyman the public hates or distrusts more than you.</p>
<p>When you become a lobbyist, you know that every election year you will become the scapegoat for all the failures of both Congress and the incumbent president's administration. You know that in one breath members of Congress and the president will blame you for a policy stalemate — and then in the next breath call you and ask you for a campaign contribution. These same elected leaders will tell their constituents how they need to halt the influence that lobbyists have in Washington. But when they leave their campaign rallies, they will call us asking for help on their campaign.</p>
<p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>The reality is that it's good politics to trash a profession the public does not know much about. It's good business to spread lies, and only then to turn to us and use us to get you elected. Frankly, shame on people in our business for allowing it.</p>
<p>Joe Biden campaigned on improving ethics in the capital, but now that he's been elected that seems like it was just a tagline to get votes. He is imposing restrictions on lobbyists serving in his administration and on government boards, yet his transition team is filled with big-name lobbyists. His team has said that not all lobbyists will be banned. Some will be given waivers to serve. </p>
<p>My questions for the president-elect are: Why some and not all? If our profession is the problem in Washington, as you claim, then why does your team include lobbyists? Why the need for waivers? Why not simply ban all of us, not just some of us? </p>
<p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>The answer is simple. You have been in elected politics for more than 40 years and you know the true value of what we do — and the information and expertise we will offer you and your new administration. So, while it may get you a good public reception to claim you are banning lobbyists, then quietly you will enlist us. It is the Washington way. </p>
<p>But while Biden's policy discriminates against a class of people because of what they do, it makes exceptions for people close to you or who have been big donors to you over the years. The American people deserve better than this. Frankly, our profession deserves to be treated better than this. </p>
<p>The next president campaigned on the promise to create a diverse administration. Some will say he is doing just that. I take a different view. The policies he is putting in place not only discriminate against a whole class of professionals, but they also tell lobbyists of color they are not welcome to serve in the new administration. At a time when we should be celebrating public service and are asking corporate America to be more inclusive, Biden is doing the exact opposite. His bans limit lobbyists of color from creating opportunities to be selected to top positions in government and their chosen fields. That is exactly what the president-elect has criticized corporate America for doing.</p>
<p>As his new administration begins, I would urge Biden to reconsider his lobbyist ban for the reasons here. Barack Obama did much the same after he was elected president a dozen years ago and it turned into a black eye for his administration, which relaxed its rules six years later in the aftermath of an unfavorable federal appeals court ruling.</p>
<p>Since 2009 we have seen a growing trend of people taking themselves off the lists of registered federal lobbyists so they could serve in the Obama and Trump administrations. We suspect that will continue under a Biden administration unless he changes course. </p>
<p>Such shadow lobbying is a real problem — and one our profession is fighting against. The new president should work with us on creating policies that create more transparency, not less. But an outright ban is going to continue the rise of shadow lobbyists at a time when the American people are tired of corruption in government. </p>
<p>Please, Mr. President-elect: Work with us and not against us. I would urge you to be honest in your policies. If you ban lobbyists, you need to ban all lobbyists, not just some. You need to return the campaign donations you have taken during your campaign to every lobbyist or political action committee. You need to stop taking money from lobbyists or corporate America for your inauguration. And you need a universal diversity and inclusion policy that is inclusive of all, not just some.</p>
<p>As a profession, we want to work with you on transparency. We want to work with you on ethics reform. This is only possible if your administration is open and honest about your policies and does not create carve-outs for big donors or close friends. You cannot hold the rest of us accountable if you are not going to follow your own lead.</p>
<div></div><p>Leadership starts at the top with one policy for all, not just some well-connected Washington insiders.</p>
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
How Justice Alito is openly testing the bounds of judicial conduct
Nov 19 2020
Sarat is associate provost, associate dean of the faculty and a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College. Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor in San Francisco.
<p>Last week, Justice Samuel Alito <a href="https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/12/video-and-transcript-of-justice-alitos-keynote-address-to-the-federalist-society/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">delivered</a><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/13/samuel-alitos-provocative-unusually-political-speech/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>a rousing keynote address to the annual convention of the Federalist Society, arguably the nation's most influential conservative legal group. </p><p>The speech was starkly different from the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2017-06-02/supreme-court-justices-blur-lines-with-political-speeches" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">guarded public pronouncements</a> that are the usual fare from members of the Supreme Court. Instead, it was a full-throated attack on policies and judicial decisions that, he contended, grant too much power to government agencies charged with protecting public health — and further threaten religious liberties already under assault.</p><p>Afterward, one could hardly be blamed for musing on the <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=9538" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hypocrisy</a> of Supreme Court nominees who regularly claim they have no political agenda only to pursue such an agenda once they've secured confirmation. It was only last month when the nation witnessed this charade at the Senate Judiciary Committee, with Amy Coney Barrett <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-senate-confirmation-hearings-day-2-recap/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> repeatedly assuring the committee</a> that "I have no mission and no agenda. Judges don't have campaign promises." </p><p>Like the newest justice, Alito at his 2006 confirmation hearings promised his political views <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CHRG-ALITO/pdf/GPO-CHRG-ALITO.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">would be irrelevant</a> to his work on the high court. Then on a federal appeals court, he contended there is a stark difference between being a judge and an advocate who "has the goal of achieving the result that the client wants within the bounds of professional responsibility." A judge, he said, "doesn't have an agenda, and a judge has to follow the law." </p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>And when asked if he agreed with a series of Supreme Court rulings, or continued to subscribe to previous criticisms of other decisions, he consistently. <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41300.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">refused</a> to answer. He insisted he could not comment on cases or issues that might come before the court, lest he be seen as prejudging them.</p><p>Such reticence vanished before the Federalist Society. Alito unburdened himself of grievances, legal and political. And he freely talked about issues already on the Supreme Court docket. He seemed untroubled skating up to the line of ethics rules <a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/code-conduct-united-states-judges" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">requiring</a> judges to remain impartial, to avoid any appearance of bias and to avoid public comment on the merits of any pending matter. </p><p>About state public health measures attempting to curb the spread of the coronavirus, he observed that "the pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty" and asserted that "We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020."</p><p>Abandoning the posture he assumed at his confirmation hearings, Alito specifically criticized his own court's recent refusal to stop restrictions imposed by two states to fight Covid-19 — measures, he contended, that "blatantly discriminated against houses of worship."</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Those cases reveal what he called "emerging trends in the assessment of individual rights" by the court. "It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right." </p><p>The justice proudly proclaimed his belief in the virtues of the 1993 law dubbed the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/1308" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Religious Freedom Restoration Act</a>, even as the court is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicksibilla/2020/10/05/the-trump-administrations-surprising-attack-on-religious-freedom-reaches-the-supreme-court/?sh=3c516d395b79" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">currently considering</a> a case that could curtail its reach.</p><p>And in discussing the <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/the-ongoing-challenge-to-define-free-speech/not-a-masterpiece/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2018 case</a> of a Colorado baker who refused on religious grounds to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple, the justice declared such treatment caused the couple no harm because a nearby baker provided them a "free cake." He professed that view even though a similar issue involving religious freedom and discrimination against same-sex couples <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/19-123" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">is also pending in his courthouse</a>. </p><p>Warming to another conservative legal <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/opinion/sunday/gundy-united-states.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">cause celebre</a>, Alito cited what he called the "disturbing trend" of the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2645036" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">growing power of federal regulatory agencies</a>. Again, he spoke while the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/07/before-the-summer-recess-one-last-set-of-grants/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">court's docket</a> now has cases testing the authority of the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Federal Trade Commission. </p><p>"Every year," the justice complained, "administrative agencies acting under broad delegations of authority churn out huge volumes of regulations that dwarf the statutes enacted by the people's elected representatives." Echoing the Trump administration's paranoia about a "<a href="https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/specialissue/blaming-the-deep-state/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">deep state</a>" and its <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05706-9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hostility to science</a>, Alito decried what he called "government by executive officials."</p><p>These are hardly the words of a justice without an agenda. Indeed, they seem to be a rallying cry for the Supreme Court's newly augmented conservative majority to use its power <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/156207/plot-level-administrative-state" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">to curtail</a> the power of government agencies responsible for protecting public health and safety and to advance the libertarian cause.</p><div></div><p>As Gabe Roth of <a href="https://fixthecourt.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fix the Court</a>, a nonprofit group that has called for stricter ethics rules for the Supreme Court, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/us/samuel-alito-religious-liberty-free-speech.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rightly noted</a>, the speech "was more befitting a Trump rally than a legal society." It provides yet another occasion for Americans to wonder whether our judges can be trusted when they claim that they are merely neutral arbiters of the law. </p>
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President-elect Joe Biden, who with Jill Biden marked Veterans Day on Wednesday, has come under criticism for not making democracy reform a priority.
Anxious democracy reformers pressing Biden to make more of their causes
Nov 12 2020
Joe Biden has plenty of campaign promises to keep, beyond the obvious and enormous top priorities of corralling the coronavirus and stabilizing the economy. And that's made democracy reform groups, which have never counted him as an impassioned ally, newly skeptical their priorities will get addressed in his new administration.
Their anxiety has come to the surface this week. A coalition of 170 progressive good governance and voting rights organizations asked the president-elect to elevate a collection of fix-the-system proposals into his first 100 days' agenda. Separately, one of the most influential such groups, RepresentUs, lambasted the Biden transition for "an omission of epic proportions" by giving short shrift to the issues it cares about.
Their impatience, just days after Biden's victory became clear, underscores the precarious position the cause of fixing democracy's dysfunction has in the public policy agenda.
<p>At the same time, however, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has signaled she may revive the sweeping election process, government ethics and money-in politics legislation known as HR 1, and have the House pass it again in January even before Biden's inauguration. </p><p>Doing so "right off the bat," she told reporters before her Democratic majority was trimmed by about a dozen seats on Election Day, would "reduce the role of big, dark, special-interest money that prevents us from having policies that the American people need." </p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>That could only happen, though, if the Democrats win both runoffs in Georgia in January and take the narrowest possible control of the Senate. Otherwise, HR 1 and <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/biden-political-reform" target="_self">all the other legislation</a> on the good governance wish list — including a restoration of the <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/voting-rights-act" target="_self">Voting Rights Act</a> and a package to curb executive power abuses — would continue to get ignored to death by GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.</p><p>Biden has backed taxpayer funding of congressional and presidential campaigns — a Holy Grail for many reform groups — since he was a new Delaware senator in the 1970s. And early in his campaign for the Democratic nomination he unveiled a full slate of proposals for expanding voting rights, curbing money's sway over campaigns, bolstering government ethics and recalibrating the balance of power. </p><p>But, unlike seven of his rivals in the sprawling early field, in the summer of 2019 he <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/candidates-end-citizens-united-pledge" target="_self">declined to sign a pledge</a> to put those issues on top of his legislative agenda if elected. And, after he wrapped up the nomination, it appeared to take a concerted lobbying effort to get a robust section on democracy reform added to the party platform — just in time for a convention <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/joe-biden-agenda" target="_self">when almost all mentions </a>of the topic were about the need to assure easy voting in the pandemic-upended election.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Part of that effort was <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/democracy-reform-groups-to-biden-dont-you-forget-about-us" target="_self">a public appeal to Biden</a> from a new coalition dubbing itself the <a href="https://declarationforamericandemocracy.org/" target="_blank">Declaration for American Democracy</a>.</p><p>It was that group that went public Tuesday with a <a href="https://declarationforamericandemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/9.28-Day-One-is-for-Democracy-1.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">manifesto</a> calling on Biden to both push hard for HR 1, whether Congress stays divided or not, but also make 30 different moves by executive order to promote voting rights and assure his administration is more honest, transparent, responsive and respectful of checks and balances than in the past.</p><p>The most important moves on the coalition's list, it said, would be requiring federal social services agencies to help the people they serve register to vote; tightening the ethics pledge for political appointees; curbing the revolving door between the executive branch and lobbyist and corporate offices; refusing to have anything to do with fundraising by so-called <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/super-pac" target="_self">super PACS</a>; posting White House visitor logs; and making public all the work of the White House office of legal counsel.</p><p>For the organizations in the group, any of these changes would represent a dramatic shift from the past four years. President Trump, who won partly on a vow to "drain the swamp," has done nothing of the kind while upending virtually avery norm of democracy he could get his hands on.</p><p>Most recently, and potentially most consequentially, has been his decision to contest his defeat last week and in the meantime refuse to cooperate in the transition. But along the way he has challenged the precepts of open and ethical government by commingling his business interests with government work, choosing secrecy over transparency at nearly every turn and thwarting all congressional efforts to oversee or investigate his activities. </p><p>But there is no time to wait, said Josh Silver, who runs the influential reform group RepresentUs. And the signals from the Biden transition team that such issues have fallen to the second tier demonstrate "an omission of epic proportions."</p><p>It "follows a pattern of Democratic presidential candidates talking big about these issues on the campaign trail and promptly ignoring them when the chips are down. That's why our nation is in the perilous position we're in now," he said in an exceptionally harsh statement Monday. "It just requires leadership that prioritizes these reforms. Based on President-elect Biden's Day 1 agenda, it's not going to happen, and he is guaranteeing more dysfunction, more authoritarianism and more instability." </p><p>Biden will likely focus first on proposals that could attract bipartisan support — starting with providing economic relief during the resurgent pandemic and then moving on to improving the nation's crumbling infrastructure and using the climate change crisis as the basis for job creation.</p><p>The political dynamic on Capitol Hill means Biden may have to pull back from some policy proposals that are mainly goals of the left and have little or no traction among conservatives. Democracy reform, in the main, falls in that bucket</p>
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