Closing the Revolving Door

Statement

Yesterday, I introduced a bill to shut the constant revolving door of Washington lobbyists and Congress and limit the influence of lobbyists. The special interest obstruction of Wall Street Reform is just the latest example of the outsized influence of lobbyists in Washington. There are 1,500 Wall Street lobbyists leading the charge to block Wall Street reform that would improve transparency, strengthen consumer protections and protect the American taxpayer from bailing out the largest banks in the country.

My bill, The Close the Revolving Door Act of 2010, will prevent Members of Congress from lobbying when they leave Capitol Hill and prevent congressional staff from going back and forth through the revolving door, so public officials can get serious about the business of helping the country.

Specifically, this aggressive lobbying reform bill will:

* Place a lifetime ban on Members of Congress from lobbying after leaving public life;
* Prevent Congressional staff from lobbying their former bosses and Committees for six years;
* Prevent lobbyists from joining congressional staffs that they lobbied for six years;
* Close loopholes on perks from lobbyists;
* Increase transparency of lobbying activities and interactions with Congress; and
* Increase fines for lobbyist violations.

This lobbying reform bill is part of my larger Plan for Washington Reform to get Congress working for the people and bring Colorado common sense to Washington. People in Colorado and all across America are suffering, and there are too many big problems in this country for us to allow special interests and political games to get in the way of making things better for people. We need to fix Washington in order to fix the problems plaguing our country.

Source