Watchdogs give lobbyist a pass for senior health post

Government watchdogs who assailed President Obama for setting aside his restrictions against lobbyists joining his administration for a Pentagon appointee say the same criticisms do not apply to an anti-tobacco lobbyist in line for a top health job.

Obama plans to nominate William Corr, who had been executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and a registered lobbyist since 2000, to be deputy secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

{mosads}But nominating Corr would require the White House to waive Obama’s Jan. 21 executive order against lobbyists serving in his administration. The order says a person may not “seek or accept employment with any executive agency that I lobbied within the two years before the date of my appointment.”

The White House issued a waiver to permit Raytheon lobbyist William Lynn to become deputy secretary of Defense, provoking an outcry from government ethics watchdogs.

Obama has not yet formally nominated Corr, but before the Inauguration, the presidential transition team announced that he had been chosen to be deputy secretary, serving under HHS Secretary-nominee Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader who has yet to be confirmed.

Corr’s qualifications, which include participating in Obama’s transition, serving on Daschle’s Senate staff and working as a senior adviser to then-HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, have not been questioned.

But Corr has been a registered lobbyist, working on health-related issues, for years, which would disqualify him under the letter of Obama’s executive order.

Even with a waiver, Corr likely would have to recuse himself from HHS’s efforts on tobacco regulation, even though Obama’s views on tobacco closely align with those of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment by press time, though it addressed Corr’s and Lynn’s nominations last week.

“Even the toughest rules require reasonable exceptions,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told The Associated Press. “Our waiver provisions are designed to allow uniquely qualified individuals like Bill Corr and Bill Lynn to serve the public interest in these critical times.”

Gibbs also told reporters that the White House would issue only a “very limited number of waivers” but would not elaborate.

On behalf of the anti-tobacco group, Corr lobbied for such goals as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of tobacco products, limits on tobacco advertising and increases in the federal tax on tobacco.

During the course of that work, Corr regularly lobbied officials at HHS agencies such as the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, according to public records. The records also indicate that Corr ceased lobbying for the group on Sept. 24, 2008.

Despite a lengthy tenure lobbying on controversial issues, the same watchdogs protesting Lynn say Corr’s nomination to HHS presents no apparent ethical problems.

“I don’t think they’re the same. I think there’s this problem of tarring all lobbyists with the same brush,” said Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

For these groups, their chief objection to Lynn moving from Raytheon, a major defense contractor, to the Pentagon is the potential for financial conflicts of interest.

Because the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids does not earn money from HHS programs, Corr would not be in the same position, the watchdogs argued.

“His former group is not going to profit from him being at HHS,” said Mandy Smithberger, a national security investigator at the Project on Government Oversight.

“It really is the difference between trying to get policy decisions made in the public interest compared to trying to get profit for a company,” said Adam Miles, the legislative representative for the Government Accountability Project and a registered lobbyist.

“The end that Tobacco-Free Kids is seeking is stronger regulation of tobacco, and the end that Raytheon is seeking is more profit for their shareholders,” Miles said.

“The nature of Lynn’s work makes him the poster child of who should not be appointed,” said Craig Holman, a registered lobbyist and legislative representative for Public Citizen.

In addition to the concerns about the financial ties between ex-lobbyists’ former employers and government agencies, several of the watchdogs acknowledged they were making a qualitative judgment about the value of lobbying against tobacco compared to lobbying for a defense contractor.

“It is a lot harder for people to get worked up about somebody who is trying to protect kids from tobacco,” Sloan said.