New York Times Editorial - The golden revolving door
New York Times Editorial - The golden revolving door
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: June 20, 2006
It has been just over four years since the Department of Homeland Security was created, and it has hardly covered itself with glory. Hurricane Katrina was a disaster of a disaster; ports are still far from secure, and chemical plants remain a huge target of opportunity for terrorists. But there's one area in which Homeland Security has excelled beyond anyone's wildest expectations: creating a giant, expensive crop of government-trained consultants and lobbyists.
As The New York Times and the IHT reported this week, at least 90 top Homeland Security officials have gone through that famous revolving door between the government and the lobbying industry. That's more than two-thirds of the most senior executives from the department's infancy. It is hard to believe that the people running an agency that performs so badly could be so much in demand.
What they have, of course, are contacts on the inside. The domestic security industry has become an enormous money pot, and the ability to set up a meeting with a former Homeland Security colleague is invaluable.
If homeland security is the central concern of the Bush administration, one wonders how it managed to create a department in which so many of the top brass were so eager to quit the crusade so soon and cash in so efficiently. But the worst effect of this kind of take-the-money-and-run mentality is on the people left behind. How many of them, having watched others land lucrative jobs as lobbyists, will temper their own judgments about what systems to buy and what consultants to use with an eye on their own private-sector prospects?
To stop this kind of destructive back-scratching, Congress passed a law in 1962 that required former officials to wait a year before lobbying former colleagues. But officials in Homeland Security managed to get a loophole through the Office of Government Ethics in 2004. It divided the department into seven areas, and allowed former employees to lobby all but the one where they worked.
That ruling should be revisited immediately. In the meantime, let's hope Homeland Security hasn't left the airport screening process as ridden with holes as its own ethics rules are.
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: June 20, 2006
It has been just over four years since the Department of Homeland Security was created, and it has hardly covered itself with glory. Hurricane Katrina was a disaster of a disaster; ports are still far from secure, and chemical plants remain a huge target of opportunity for terrorists. But there's one area in which Homeland Security has excelled beyond anyone's wildest expectations: creating a giant, expensive crop of government-trained consultants and lobbyists.
As The New York Times and the IHT reported this week, at least 90 top Homeland Security officials have gone through that famous revolving door between the government and the lobbying industry. That's more than two-thirds of the most senior executives from the department's infancy. It is hard to believe that the people running an agency that performs so badly could be so much in demand.
What they have, of course, are contacts on the inside. The domestic security industry has become an enormous money pot, and the ability to set up a meeting with a former Homeland Security colleague is invaluable.
If homeland security is the central concern of the Bush administration, one wonders how it managed to create a department in which so many of the top brass were so eager to quit the crusade so soon and cash in so efficiently. But the worst effect of this kind of take-the-money-and-run mentality is on the people left behind. How many of them, having watched others land lucrative jobs as lobbyists, will temper their own judgments about what systems to buy and what consultants to use with an eye on their own private-sector prospects?
To stop this kind of destructive back-scratching, Congress passed a law in 1962 that required former officials to wait a year before lobbying former colleagues. But officials in Homeland Security managed to get a loophole through the Office of Government Ethics in 2004. It divided the department into seven areas, and allowed former employees to lobby all but the one where they worked.
That ruling should be revisited immediately. In the meantime, let's hope Homeland Security hasn't left the airport screening process as ridden with holes as its own ethics rules are.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 7:58 AM
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