Executive Order 13770 Explained

Executiveorder:13770
Longtitle:Executive Order on the Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees
Executive Order 13770
Documentimage:Executive Order 13770.pdf
Documentcaption:Executive Order 13770 uploaded to Wikisource and published by the Federal Register
Signedpresident:Donald Trump
Documentnumber:2017-02450
Documentcitation:9333
Summary:Directs executive branch employees on a ban on lobbying any government official for two years and the agency they worked in for five years. It also prevents them from ever lobbying the US on behalf of a foreign government or foreign political parties.
Type:Executive order

Executive Order 13770, entitled "Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees," was an executive order issued by US President Donald Trump on January 28, 2017, that directs executive branch employees on a ban from becoming a lobbyist for five years.[1] [2] The order, which reflected an increasingly standard practice of issuing such ethics rules by executive order early in a new administration, borrowed language from similar orders issued by past administrations.

Trump revoked the order on the final day of his presidency, allowing his administration's officials to immediately begin working as lobbyists.[3] [4] [5]

Purpose

Ethics Pledge. Every appointee in every executive agency appointed on or after January 20, 2017, shall sign, and upon signing shall be contractually committed to, the following pledge upon becoming an appointee:[1] [2]

Review of order

The executive order directs executive branch employees on a ban on lobbying any government official for two years and the agency they worked in for five years. It also prevents them from ever lobbying the US on behalf of a foreign government or foreign political parties.[6] If someone is found guilty of not complying with the order, they could be barred for another five years on top of the order's five years for a total of ten years.[1] [2] Section 3 provides that the president may grant a waiver to any person of any restriction contained in the pledge. The order does not explain on what grounds a waiver may be granted.[7] The order has a lifetime ban on lobbying for foreign governments.[8] [9] [10]

Revocation

Trump revoked the order on the final day of his presidency without explanation.[11] This allowed his appointees, some of whom had trouble finding work after the White House, to immediately begin working as lobbyists. President Bill Clinton similarly revoked his comparable executive order at the end of his presidency, something Trump criticized him for during the 2016 campaign.

Reaction

NPRs Tamara Keith states, "As Trump's team drafted his order on ethics, they appear to have borrowed heavily from the language used in orders signed by both Clinton and President Obama. Obama also pulled from Clinton, in parts and the ethics directive signed by President George W. Bush is nearly identical to the one signed by his father twelve years earlier. But that's less surprising given those were presidents using the language of their predecessor from the same party. Perhaps more importantly, Trump not only seems to be lifting from Democratic presidents' language, but they are presidents he has condemned, including for not draining the swamp."[12] "The story here is not the copying per se, it is the claim Trump has been making that he is doing something really different, new, and righteous when, apparently, in many respects he is actually copying Democrats he so thoroughly condemned as corrupt," said John Woolley, a professor at UC Santa Barbara and co-director of the Presidency Project.

Government watchdog groups criticized the revocation of the order. Robert Weissman, president of consumer-rights group Public Citizen, said that "The revocation of the 5-year lobbying ban for presidential appointees is the perfect coda for the most corrupt administration in American history." Noah Bookbinder, executive director of the nonpartisan government ethics and accountability watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that "By rescinding his ethics order and letting his staffers immediately become lobbyists, the man who pledged to drain the swamp took a giant step to fill it."[13] News coverage contrasted the revocation of the ban with Trump's earlier pledge to "drain the swamp."

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: Office of the Press Secretary. White House Office of the Press Secretary. Executive Order: Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees . January 28, 2017. Washington, D.C.. en. National Archives. whitehouse.gov. May 18, 2017.
  2. News: Executive Order 13770 of January 28, 2017 Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees. Federal Register. National Archives and Records Administration. Washington, D.C.. January 28, 2017. May 18, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170203132941/https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/02/03/2017-02450/ethics-commitments-by-executive-branch-appointees. February 3, 2017. Alt URL
  3. News: 2021-01-20. Trump Revokes Lobbying Ban After Promising to 'Drain the Swamp'. Bloomberg.com. 20 January 2021. www.bloomberg.com.
  4. Web site: 2021-01-20. Trump issues last-minute order attempting to free his appointees from ethics commitments. news.yahoo.com. January 20, 2021 .
  5. Web site: 2021-01-20. Trump Revokes Administration Ethics Rules On His Way Out The Door. NPR.org.
  6. News: Trump imposes lifetime ban on some lobbying, five years for others. . CNBC. January 29, 2017. May 18, 2017.
  7. News: Executive Order on "Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees". Cody M.. Poplin. Lawfare Blog. Blogger. United States. January 28, 2017. May 18, 2017.
  8. News: Executive Order Adds Ethics Commitments for Executive Branch Appointees. . Perkins Coie. Perkins Coie LLP. Seattle. January 30, 2017. May 18, 2017.
  9. News: Executive Order 13770, Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees, Replaces an Obama Executive Order and Imposes New Restrictions. . Sidley Austin. Sidley Austin LLP. Chicago. February 14, 2017. May 19, 2017.
  10. Book: Straus. Jacob R.. Ethics Pledges and Other Executive Branch Appointee Restrictions Since 1993: Historical Perspective, Current Practices, and Options for Change. September 29, 2017. Congressional Research Service. Washington, DC. 11 October 2017.
  11. News: Josh. Dawsey. 2021-01-20. Hours before leaving office, Trump undoes one of the only measures he took to 'drain the swamp'. Washington Post. 0190-8286. www.washingtonpost.com.
  12. News: Trump's Executive Order On Ethics Pulls Word For Word From Obama, Clinton. Alex. Brandon. NPR. National Public Radio, Inc.. Associated Press. Washington, D.C.. January 28, 2017. May 18, 2017.
  13. Web site: Andrew. Solender. 2021-01-20. Trump Revokes Lobbying Ban He Signed At The Beginning Of His Presidency. Forbes.