NYT Must Read: Homeland Security Revolving Door

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June 17, 2006

New York Times� Eric Lipton has an excellent article on line today about Department of Homeland Security officials who went on to �sell� their expertise to companies seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in Department contracts including Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric.

An ethics officer reminds us that all this �is permissible under the law,� and that it is unfair to �tar people� by questioning the ethics of their cashing in on their government service. Is it? There are plenty of jobs to be had that don�t involve making millions of dollars out of the American taxpayers' check book.

The article helpfully points out that the U.S. Office of Government Ethics approved a request from �senior department officials� to split the department into seven components so that, �Once in the private sector, most former department officials were prohibited for one year from lobbying the same component where they once worked.� Even with underlings to do the lobbying for them, high level officials still could not wait a year before cashing in.

Who would you rather have running your Department of Homeland Security?

a)      A guy with his hand on the door knob and eye on his checking account; or

b)      Someone who plans to stick around for the long haul of protecting the U.S. from its enemies and the threats it faces.

Authors: Beth Daley

Project On Government Oversight (POGO)

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