Door Policy -- Literature Review Extension Annotated

¶ … Door Policy -- Literature Review Extension

Annotated Bibliography

Revolving Door Members (2011). First Street -- Where People and Policy Interact. Retrieved http://firststreet.cqpress.com/content/Revolving_Door_Members.aspx

This intelligence tool follows members of Congress who go through the Revolving door. The members of Congress who have disclosed their lobbying activity and members of Congress who previously worked as lobbyists are tracked in the First Street database. The information contained includes the organizations they represent, the type of work that they have done and are presently doing. Subscribers to this database include advocates from law firms, member-based associations, lobbying organizations, and others. The research dashboard can be customized and saved, contact lists can be established, and bookmarks can be created for people, issues, and organizations of interest. The resource is comprehensive and is of value for anyone needing to do serious research. For the purposes of this project, the site is useful for demonstrations of the transparency available to any party interested enough to pursue their research online. Minimally, interested parties should follow their Twitter and Facebook Page.

(2011). Project on Government Oversight (Pogo). Retrieved http://www.pogo.org/pogo files/alerts/financial-oversight/fo-fra-20110601.html

The nonpartisan, independent watchdog organization champions reforms for good government by investigating corruption, conflicts of interest, and misconduct. Pogo's goal is to achieve a more accountable, effective, transparent, open, and ethical federal government. The expertise at Pogo knows and works with government inside sources and whistleblowers in order to document evidence of corruption, fraud, waste, or abuse. The organization has utility for the proposed research as it reveals instances where the revolving door policy regulations are ignored or worked around (i.e., a recent article on irregularities in the SEC's implementation of post-employment and conflict of interest regulations.

Independent Assessment of Department of Defense Review of Post-Employment Restrictions. (2011, September). National Academy of Public Administration. Retrieved http://www.napawash.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/DoD-Work-in-Progress-v5.pdf

The National Academy of Public Administration is a non-profit, independent organization of top public administration managers and leaders of organizations who address the most critical and complex public management challenges that face the country. The Academy is trusted and uniquely qualified to counsel government officials, provide objective advice, and develop practical solutions that are based on systematic research and expert analysis. Established in 1967, the Academy assists federal, state and local governments to respond effectively to change, and has been charged to do so by a Congressional charter of 1984. The importance of this organization to the current research project is its ability to conduct a deep dive in which it is permitted to examine processes and documentation that would be off-limits to other entities. For example, the National Defense Authorization Act mandated that the Department of Defense Panel on Contracting Integrity review the post-employment restrictions policies that apply to the DoD "to determine if such policies adequately protect the public interest without unreasonably limiting future employment options of former Department of Defense personnel." In accordance with its function, the National Association of Public Administration (NAPA) will conduct an independent review of the recommendations and findings of the Department of Defense (DoD) Panel report, and will extend that charge to an in-depth review of effective practices at other federal entities in order to inform the generation of key recommendations and an implementation plan.

A matter of trust: How the revolving door undermines public confidence in government -- and what to do about it. (2005, October) Revolving Door Working Group. Retrieved www.revolvingdoor.info.

This report from the Revolving Door Working Group makes distinctions between the various types of revolving door practices, delineates the reasons why the public should be concerned with revolving door practices and policies, points out the weaknesses of the existing rules framework, and, finally, proposes policy reforms. The purpose of the reforms is to establish mechanisms that reduce perceived and actual impropriety through the establishment of "appropriate boundaries between public service and the pursuit of private interests." Suggested reforms would seek to increase the vigilance of those responsible for oversight and safeguards, and enhance transparency of practices and policies related to revolving door activities. The importance of this report to the present study is that it provides an historical underpinning to the current revolving door policy issues, and explicates reform proposals that can be tracked to the present in order to assess what suggested reforms survived. Further, the report of the working group was released at a time in America when revolving door policies were in full-swing and may have reached an apex with regard to total numbers of participants.

Business-Managed Democracy. (2011). The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved http://herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/government/national/heritage.html

The Heritage Foundation promotes a talent bank of potential candidates for positions in official places within the governmental administration, and bases its maintenance of this program on the idea that placing people of influence who are aligned with the Heritage Foundation will increase their influence substantially. A major function and focus of the Heritage Foundation and dozens of conservative think tanks has been the creation of a new professional cadre. " Not only have the dozens of conservative think tanks created a framework for disseminating ideas that exist largely outside of established infrastructure of academic journals, university presses, and commercial publishing…they have also designated career vehicles for conservative activist and thinkers" ("Heritage Foundation," 2011). This resource is of value to the proposed study as unabashedly demonstrates the practice of revolving door between think tanks and the governmental positions with the authority to sponsor college and university students and promising junior bureaucrats a place to meet, socialize, network, and job hunt. Through these efforts, the Heritage foundation "seeks to nurture a new generation of conservative leaders within their ranks" ("Heritage Foundation," 2011)..

Associated Press Notes About the 111th Congress.

This document is a listing of facts and figures spanning a wide variety of topics and information about members of Congress. Application is limited as sources are not identified, nor does the document contain any references.

Carey, M.P. And Hogue, H.B. (2011, April 20). Presidential Appointments to Full-Time Positions in Independent and Other Agencies During the 110th Congress.

This paper examines the nomination and appointment process for positions in independent and other types of agencies, and particularly examines the length of time between the nominations and confirmation. The relevance of this content to the topic of revolving door policy is the discussion about the power that Senators wield with regard to providing advice to the President about selection of appointees. It should be noted that Senators have delayed or effectively blocked the consideration of a nomination if they believe that pre-nomination consultation has been insufficient.

Cheatham, C.S. (2010, November 18). Ethics Developments in the U.S. Congress since 1958: Selected Resources. The Judge Ben C. Green Law Library, Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Triggered by a Congressional hearing to determine if evidence against two Democratic Senators is sufficiently clear and convincing to charge them with gross violations of standards, this is a comprehensive chronology of laws and Congressional rules related to ethics and conflict of interest of members of Congress and federal employees. This compilation is particularly relevant to the topic of revolving door policies as it illustrates the evolution of the regulations and the steady progression toward more specific and more constraining regulations.