Transition Ethics Rules

Governments at all levels around the country are going through the critical transition phase. Of note, President-elect Barack Obama has initiated a set of new ethics rules that apply to gifts and federal lobbyists during the presidential transition. 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.