Employer
Lockheed MartinDescription: Steven H. Walker left his position at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency with a $3.4 billion budget responsible for developing new technologies for the Department of Defense, and joined Lockheed Martin the next business day. In fiscal year 2018, Lockheed Martin was the top recipient of DARPA contract dollars, according to a Federal Procurement Data System report. Throughout his career at DARPA, Walker worked with hypersonic technologies. While a program manager at DARPA, Walker “initiated the $500 million DARPA/Air Force Falcon program to develop and flight-test technologies for long-duration hypersonic flight,” according to his DARPA biography. Lockheed Martin expects this technology to bring in a billion dollars in 2020, according to an October 2019 earnings call. In fiscal year 2019, DARPA awarded $83.2 million in contracts to Lockheed Martin, according to USA Spending data.
According to a DARPA statement to POGO, Walker "scrupulously followed all ethics legal and regulatory requirements related to seeking employment with Lockheed Martin." This included notifying DARPA and recusing himself from certain activities when he first sought employment with Lockheed Martin, according to the statement. Walker is "under several ethical restrictions to engage DARPA in his new position at Lockheed," pursuant to the relevant laws and President Trump's ethics pledge. DARPA provided POGO a copy of the Ethics Pledge and a "Disqualification - Seeking Post-Government Employment" form. This form indicates that Walker began seeking employment with Lockheed on October 23, 2019, and disqualified himself from participating in business that would benefit his future employer.
When reached for comment, Lockheed Martin declined to say whether the organization had placed additional ethical restrictions on Walker's employment.
Reuters reported that “Walker’s efforts to develop hypersonic weapons and low-earth orbit satellites while at DARPA will help Lockheed as it pursues hypersonic weapons and to win future defense contracts.”
Reuters reported that “Walker’s efforts to develop hypersonic weapons and low-earth orbit satellites while at DARPA will help Lockheed as it pursues hypersonic weapons and to win future defense contracts.”
Ethics laws are riddled with loopholes. Without transparency and more effective protections of the public interest the revolving door between senior Pentagon officials and officers and defense contractors may be costing American taxpayers billions.