WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama, who campaigned against lobbyists’ influence, on Tuesday opened the door for them to work for him if they sign an ethics code that restricts their role in and out of government.
Lobbyists can work for Obama’s transition if they stop their advocacy efforts and avoid working in any field that they lobbied on in the past year. They also must pledge not to lobby the administration on matters they focused on during the transition for a year after leaving Obama’s service.
The ethics policy allows Obama to hire any of the some 22,000 federally registered lobbyists even though Obama railed against their influence on the campaign trail.
Obama transition co-chairman John Podesta said the transition will have a budget of $12 million. Taxpayers will pick up $5.2 million; he said the rest would be raised from individuals with a $5,000 per-person contribution limit. He said lobbyists, corporations and political action committees will be banned from donating.
Podesta said the transition would employ around 450, with teams sent into more than 100 federal agencies to review policies, budgets and personnel.
He said the teams will move in as early as Monday and members will be disclosed on the transition website, , later this week.
He announced that Dan Tarullo, a Georgetown law professor who was an economic adviser to President Clinton, would lead the Treasury Department transition team.
