President Obama may have promised to keep lobbyists out of the White House, but the revolving door is still swinging the other way.
Several administration aides and staffers have left the executive branch for lucrative positions at K Street lobbying firms, and more are eyeing moves to the noted influence-corridor, Roll Call reports.
In the past two weeks alone, two Commerce Department officials went downtown: April Boyd, who was assistant secretary for legislative and intergovernmental affairs, joined Yahoo, where she will manage the company’s outreach to Democrats, and Kevin Griffis, who was senior adviser to the chief of staff, is now a principal at the Podesta Group, one of the city’s top-revenue-grossing lobby firms.
The duo is following in the footsteps of several other colleagues who have departed in recent months, including Jill Zuckman, a senior Transportation Department official, who went to SKDKnickerbocker; Nate Tibbits, who left the National Security Council to chair the U.S. public affairs practice at Burson-Marsteller; and Madeline Otto, who went from the Department of Health and Human Services to the federal government relations department of Group Health Cooperative.
Dana Singiser became Planned Parenthood’s vice president of public policy and government relations last fall after serving in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. Another White House staffer, Dan Turton, departed last year to head the Washington, D.C., office for Entergy.