Obama transition team announces new lobbyist rules

November 12, 10:45 AMPolitics RoundupJay Keller

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Obama Transition Co-Chair
John Podesta (AP)

President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday quickly moved to set ethics rules for lobbyists during his transition to the White House.  During a briefing at the transition team's headquarters in Washington, Obama Transition Co-Chair John Podesta announced rules of lobbyists that were described as the "strictest and most far-reaching" in history. 

The rules are:

• Federal Lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.
• Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.
• If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.
• If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the Transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.
• A gift ban that is aggressive in reducing the influence of special interests.

These steps seek to limit the involvement of special interests in areas where many have sought to influence policy in the past years.

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