Editorial: Loophole needs closing

Saturday, June 24, 2006 | 7:51 a.m.

More than two-thirds of the Homeland Security Department's senior officials have left the department for the more lucrative private sector, working for businesses that make billions in department contracts, The New York Times reported this week. The newspaper said that in the department's brief history, 90 top department officials, including former chief Tom Ridge, have already made the dash for cash.

There is nothing new about government workers trading in their public service jobs for a bigger paycheck as a lobbyist, lawyer or other Washington executive. But there may be something new about the extent to which they are avoiding federal ethics laws. The laws are designed to slow the spin of the revolving door and to keep distance between the federal departments and the corporations that seek their contracts. One law mandates a "cooling off" period in which executive branch department officials must wait a year before lobbying their former government colleagues.

But the Times reported that some former executive branch officials are exploiting loopholes to avoid the ethics laws. One loophole involves high-level officials who take corporate jobs and then hire lower-level government officials - who are not subject to the one-year lobby ban - to conduct their business with the government. Another loophole created two years ago at the request of senior Homeland Security Department officials divided the department into seven areas for the purposes of ethics rules, The Times reported. The rule bans former department officials from lobbying in their former area, but allows them to lobby in the other six.

There is nothing wrong with public officials choosing to leave government work for a better salary. But it is unseemly the way that former Homeland Security officials have been able to cash in on their old jobs by circumventing federal ethics laws. Congress should examine these complex schemes and end this abuse.