"Drain the swamp" is one of the few phrases in American politics that lands with almost everyone, left and right. And there's a specific mechanism most people have in mind when they say it, even if they don't know the term for it: the revolving door. People go to Washington to serve the public, and an awful lot of them stay to serve themselves — turning a seat in Congress or a senior agency job into a launching pad for a far more lucrative career selling access back to the government they just left. Today we published our third common-sense bill, and it's aimed squarely at that door. You can read the whole thing on our new action page.
This Is Not a One-Party Problem
Let's get this out of the way first, because it matters. The revolving door is almost perfectly bipartisan. Republicans and Democrats walk through it at nearly identical rates, and the watchdog groups that track it — OpenSecrets, Public Citizen — have documented it for decades under both parties. One widely cited analysis found that 43% of the members who left Congress in a recent span became registered lobbyists. More recent counts put well over 150 former members in the influence business. This isn't about naming a villain. It's about a system that quietly invites everyone in it to cash out. (Public Citizen; OpenSecrets)
How the Door Actually Spins
Out: Congress to K Street. When members leave, the current guardrail is almost insultingly thin. A former Representative waits just one year, and a former Senator two, before they can legally lobby the very colleagues they sat beside. One year. Then the relationships, the cell numbers, and the inside knowledge of exactly which arguments will move which vote all go up for sale.
The shadow-lobbying dodge. Here's the loophole that makes even those weak rules optional for the people who matter most. Under federal law, you only have to register as a lobbyist if lobbying is 20% or more of your time for a client. So the most senior, most valuable ex-officials simply stay under the line. They call themselves "strategic advisors" or "consultants," they direct whole teams of registered lobbyists without personally making the final "contact," and they never show up on a single disclosure form. These are the "shadow lobbyists," and by some estimates they rival the entire registered influence industry in size. The public has no idea who's actually pulling the strings. (Congressional Research Service)
In: industry to government. The door swings inward, too. Officials arrive to regulate the very industries they just came from — and in some notorious cases, they pocket accelerated bonus payments from a former employer for taking the government job. A private company, in effect, paying someone to go run the agency that oversees it.
Around: the foreign door. And some former senior officials cash in by lobbying for foreign governments and foreign parties, monetizing the access, relationships, and classified knowledge that American taxpayers paid to give them.
What Our Bill Does
It closes the door in every direction:
- A lifetime lobbying ban for former Members of Congress. Serve in the House or Senate, and you may never become a paid federal lobbyist. Not after one year, not after two — never.
- Long cooling-off periods — four years for senior staff and officials, six for the most senior — before they can lobby the government.
- An end to shadow lobbying. Kill the 20% escape hatch and redefine the rules so "strategic advisers" and the people who run lobbying campaigns have to register and disclose like everyone else.
- A shut reverse door. Real recusal from matters involving a former employer or client, and a flat ban on private "golden parachute" payments contingent on taking a government job.
- A barred foreign door. A lifetime ban on senior former officials lobbying for foreign governments and parties, with real enforcement behind the foreign-agent laws.
- Sunlight and teeth: a public revolving-door database, plus civil penalties, forced give-back of illicit fees, debarment, and referral of willful violations.
The Honest Part: Free Speech
We always try to name the hardest objection to our own ideas, and here it's a real one: the First Amendment protects the right to petition the government, and lobbying is a form of that right. We take that seriously. That's exactly why this bill restricts paid representation by a narrow set of former insiders — not anyone's personal speech. Every citizen, former officials included, keeps the full right to speak, write, march, and advocate on their own behalf, for free. What ends is selling privileged access for a fee. We also wrote the "strategic advice" definition carefully so it catches the dodgers without sweeping in ordinary lawyers, and kept the scope reasonable so we don't scare good people out of public service to begin with.
Three Planks, One Idea
This is the third piece of a set. Our ban on stock trading by officials stops them from profiting on what they know. Our appointments reform shrinks the patronage army and puts experts in charge. And closing the revolving door stops them from cashing out the office itself. Different mechanisms, one common-sense idea: public office should serve the public, and no one else.
On our action page you'll find the full bill text, a plain-language explainer, and a one-page summary as downloadable Word documents, plus a ready-to-send letter for your Representative and Senators. Read it, download it, and ask your members of Congress a simple question: will you close the door you're standing in?
Sources
• Revolving Congress: departing members flock to K Street (43% figure) — Public Citizen
• Former Members of Congress in the influence industry — OpenSecrets
• The Lobbying Disclosure Act at 20: the 20% threshold and "shadow lobbying" — Congressional Research Service