Obama appointee hid lobbyist ties

posted at 12:18 pm on September 8, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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After all of the explosive controversy of having a 9/11 Truther in the Obama administration exposed, perhaps an ordinary case of hypocrisy and subterfuge will seem like a respite.  The Washington Times reports that Barack Obama’s appointee for Undersecretary of Homeland Security – Science and Technology has forgotten to mention that she worked for a firm that lobbied Congress on the exact same area that she will now run.  Will we get yet another waiver of the White House’s no-lobbyists executive order?

President Obama’s nominee at the Department of Homeland Security overseeing bioterrorism defense has served as a key adviser for a lobbying group funded by the pharmaceutical industry that has asked the government to spend more money for anthrax vaccines and biodefense research.

But Dr. Tara O’Toole, whose confirmation as undersecretary of science and technology is pending, never reported her involvement with the lobbying group called the Alliance for Biosecurity in a recent government ethics filing.

The alliance has spent more than $500,000 lobbying Congress and federal agencies — including Homeland Security — since 2005, congressional records show.

Obama administration officials pointed out that O’Toole didn’t actually have to disclose these ties … because some lobbying is more equal than others:

However, Homeland Security officials said Dr. O’Toole need not disclose her ties to the group on her government ethics form because the alliance is not incorporated: “There’s no legal existence so she wouldn’t have to disclose it,” said Robert Coyle, an ethics official for the Department of Homeland Security.

Analysts say the lack of disclosure reflects a potential loophole in the policies for the Obama administration, which has boasted about its efforts to make government more transparent. They also question lobbying laws that allow such a group to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars without the public knowing exactly how much money each of the companies that belongs to the group contributes, though such arrangements are permitted under the law.

So let’s see if we can make this more clear.  The Obama administration opposes lobbying when the law requires the lobbying group to disclose their funding and their expenditures.  They won’t normally hire anyone from those firms, and would require them to fully disclose their activities before applying for a waiver from the EO Obama signed on Inauguration Day.

However, if the person worked for an unincorporated lobbying group, which has no legal requirements for disclosure on funding or expenditures, then the White House has no problem hiring them, even in the area in which their group lobbied.  The White House requires no disclosure and no waiver in that set of circumstances.

Remind me — was Obama’s issue with lobbyists or with corporations?

The only reason this has come to light now is because O’Toole has to win Senate confirmation.  With Democrats holding 59 seats in the Senate, there isn’t much chance O’Toole will get denied, but this hypocrisy on lobbying should get plenty of exposure.  After all, it was Obama who demonized lobbyists in the first place, and now he’s stocking them in high-level positions in Homeland Security.  He should answer for the dodge.

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