Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Dachle's (D-S.D.) reported selection as secretary of health and human services could violate one of the pledges set out by President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said this afternoon.
Daschle's work as a public policy advisor in the Washington, DC office of law firm Alston & Bird, the group says, "appears to flatly contradict" an ethics pledge that prohibits political appointees in Obama's new administration from working on regulations and policy that could affect their previous employers of the past two years.
Among other issues, Daschle advises Alston & Bird's clients on healthcare–an area of policy that can fall under the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) purview–according to the law firm's website. Daschle joined the firm in May 2008, according to Alston & Bird's site.
Public Citizen says that appears to contradict this pledge, outlined on the ethics page of Obama's transition website under the heading "Free the Executive Branch from Special Interest Influence":
Close the Revolving Door on Former and Future Employers: No political appointees in the Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration.
The same pledge appeared in identical language on Obama's campaign website. The ethics page of Obama's transition site presents much of the same language as its campaign analogue.