Nov. 12-13, 2020 Demand Progress and the Revolving Door Project

Transition | Biden-Harris Transition « Advice and Recommendations

Demand Progress and Revolving Door Project
November 12, 2020

50+ ORGANIZATIONS DEMAND PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN & SENATE DEMOCRATS REJECT CORPORATE NOMINEES FOR CABINET POSITIONS

Washington, D.C. -- Today, Demand Progress and the Revolving Door Project – joined by more than fifty prominent progressive and good government organizations – called on President-elect Joe Biden as well as Democratic Senators and Senators-elect to reject corporate executives, lobbyists, and prominent corporate consultants for cabinet positions. The letters, which come just days after Biden announced a list of transition advisors riddled with corporate lobbyists and special interest executives, call on Biden and Senate Democrats to align with the vast majority of Americans and commit to elevating individuals with unquestionable track records prioritizing everyday Americans and improving lives.

David Segal, Executive Director of Demand Progress said: “The best way to bring the country together and ensure that a government is put in place that's capable of meeting the extraordinary needs of this moment is to build an administration staffed with people who care about the public interest and the general welfare – and not with corporate elites and lobbyists who are going to be doing the bidding of the major corporations they came.”

Jeff Hauser, Executive Director of the Revolving Door Project said: “We’re urging President-elect Biden to not only embrace a populist economic message, but embody it by deploying all the tools of the executive branch to deliver for regular people. To make it happen, Biden will need to appoint high-energy, creative officials who wake up every morning determined to do all they can to advance the public interest, not those who remain beholden to corporations and private profit.”

The letters also urge these elected officials to use the tools necessary to achieve these objectives – such as the Vacancy Act and recess appointments – given the almost-certain obstructionism by Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans.

The letter to President-Elect Joe Biden can be found in full here.
The letter to Democratic Senators and Senators-Elect can be found in full here.

The full text of the letter to President-Elect Biden follows:

Dear President-elect Biden:

After four years of Donald Trump’s unfettered governance in service of powerful corporations — and at the expense of everyday Americans — you are in the process of organizing a new administration.

We urge you to build out an administration that is structured so as to be able to meet the historic needs of this moment — and to uphold the highest values of the Democratic Party by operating in service of the wellbeing of the general public.

In particular, we urge you to decline to nominate or hire corporate executives, lobbyists, and prominent corporate consultants to serve in high office. Moreover, we urge you to join our organizations in seeking to elevate to such office people who have proven track records of prioritizing the general welfare. We also believe that representation of the broad diversity of our country is imperative — but diversity alone is not enough: All personnel must have demonstrated that they prioritize the needs of communities of color and service in the public interest. If necessary, we urge you to accomplish this by using tools like the Vacancy Act and recess appointments to overcome any obstruction by Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans.

Executive branch personnel have sweeping authority over interpreting and enforcing the law. They also will play key roles in helping to develop and implement a legislative agenda. While the Trump administration has embodied extremes of self-dealing, incompetence, and subservience to corporations, sadly the revolving door between big corporations and government pre-dated the Trump administration. The revolving door has generated far too many conflicts of interest and policy outcomes diverging from the public interest under both Republican and Democratic presidents.

As several members of the House of Representatives wrote to the Senate a few weeks ago, “If we are to maintain the trust of the American people, neither party can credibly accuse the other of putting the demands of allied special interests before the public good and then do the same thing when elected to govern.”

Moreover, the House members rightly noted that Democrats opposed numerous Trump appointees on the ground that their histories of work prioritizing the wants of corporations and drives towards personal enrichment likely put them at odds with the interests of the American people. To cite just a few examples, Democrats appealed to such concerns as they opposed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Ensuring governance that prioritizes the public interest is always imperative — but this is especially evident as our country faces a multilayered crisis, borne of the pandemic and the attendant economic collapse, which demands immediate and forceful action. Moreover, if your administration cares to remedy longstanding ills — like corporate concentration and structural economic inequities, systemic racism, the climate crisis, endless wars, and more — it must be run by people who care foremost about working in service of the general welfare.

The revolving door limits the trust Americans have in government and has time and again led to bad policy outcomes. We urge you to take advantage of this historic and unique moment in American history to shut the revolving door closed and rebuild that trust: The nation is depending on you to ensure the executive branch is led by the right people for this critical moment.

Many of the organizations that have signed this letter have also written to Senator Schumer and to Democratic senators and senators-elect to urge them to wield their power in the advice-and-consent process towards the ends described herein.
Sincerely,
Action Center on Race and the Economy
ALIGN : The Alliance for a Greater New York Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
American Economic Liberties Project
Americans for Financial Reform
Athena Coalition
Bend the Arc Jewish Action
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Digital Democracy
Center for Disability Rights
Center for Popular Democracy
Children's Haven:A Place of Healing & Hope, Inc.
The Climate Mobilization
Consumer Action
Courage California
Daily Kos
Demand Justice
Demand Progress
Democracy For America
Demos
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Faithful America
Food & Water Action
Friends of the Earth U.S.
Groundwork Collaborative
Indivisible
Jobs with Justice
Just Foreign Policy
Liberation in a Generation
MoveOn
MPower Change
National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights New York Communities For Change
Oil Change U.S.
Open Markets Institute
Open MIC (Open Media & Information Companies Initiative) Organic Consumers Association
Our Revolution
Partnership for Working Families
People's Parity Project
Presente.org
Progress America
Public Citizen
Revolving Door Project
RootsAction.org
Social Security Works
Strong Economy For All Coalition
SumOfUs
Sunrise Movement
Take on Wall Street
Ultraviolet
Voices for Progress
Win Without War
Working Families Party
X-Lab

The full text of the letter to Democratic Senators and Senators-elect follows:

Dear Democratic Senators and Senators-elect:

After four years of Donald Trump’s unfettered governance in service of powerful corporations — and at the expense of everyday Americans — a new administration is beginning to take shape. You will of course play a critical part in this, as you undertake the solemn advice and consent responsibilities delegated to you by the Constitution.

We urge you to wield your considerable power in this process to ensure that the incoming Biden Administration is structured so as to be able to meet the historic needs of this moment — and to uphold the highest values of the Democratic Party by operating in service of the wellbeing of the general public.

In particular, we urge you to decline to confirm — and to urge President-Elect Biden not to nominate — corporate executives, lobbyists, and prominent corporate consultants to high office. Moreover, we urge you to join our organizations in seeking to elevate to such office people who have proven track records of prioritizing the general welfare. We also believe representation of the broad diversity of our country is imperative — but diversity alone is not enough: All personnel must have demonstrated that they prioritize the needs of communities of color and service in the public interest. If necessary, we ask you to urge Biden to use tools like the Vacancy Act and recess appointments to overcome any obstruction by Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans.

Executive branch personnel have sweeping authority over interpreting and enforcing the law. They also will play key roles in helping to develop and implement Congress’s legislative agenda. While the Trump administration has embodied extremes of self-dealing, incompetence, and subservience to corporations, sadly the revolving door between big corporations and government pre-dated the Trump administration. The revolving door has generated far too many conflicts of interest and policy outcomes diverging from the public interest under both Republican and Democratic presidents.

As several members of the House of Representatives wrote to you a few weeks ago, “If we are to maintain the trust of the American people, neither party can credibly accuse the other of putting the demands of allied special interests before the public good and then do the same thing when elected to govern.”

Moreover, the House members rightly noted that Senator Schumer (alongside the bulk of the Senate Democratic Caucus), opposed numerous Trump appointees on the ground that their histories of work prioritizing the wants of corporations and drives towards personal enrichment likely put them at odds with the interests of the American people. To cite just a few examples, Democrats appealed to such concerns as they opposed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Ensuring governance that prioritizes the public interest is always imperative — but this is especially evident as our country faces a multilayered crisis, borne of the pandemic and the attendant economic collapse, which demands immediate and forceful action. Moreover, if the Biden administration cares to remedy longstanding and intertwining ills — like corporate concentration and structural economic inequities, systemic racism, the climate crisis, endless wars, and more — it must be run by people who care foremost about working in service of the general welfare.

The revolving door limits the trust Americans have in government and has time and again led to bad policy outcomes. We urge you to use your voices and your votes to take advantage of this historic and unique moment in American history to shut the revolving door closed and rebuild that trust. Your constituents are depending on you to fulfill your constitutional obligations to ensure the executive branch is led by the right people for this critical moment.

Many of the organizations that have signed this letter have also written to President-Elect Biden to urge him to nominate and hire people in accord with the principles articulated herein.

Sincerely,

Action Center on Race and the Economy
ALIGN : The Alliance for a Greater New York
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
American Economic Liberties Project
Americans for Financial Reform
Athena Coalition
Bend the Arc Jewish Action
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Digital Democracy
Center for Disability Rights
Center for Popular Democracy
Children's Haven:A Place of Healing & Hope, Inc.
The Climate Mobilization
Consumer Action
Courage California
Daily Kos
Demand Justice
Demand Progress
Democracy For America
Demos
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Faithful America
Food & Water Action
Friends of the Earth U.S.
Groundwork Collaborative
Indivisible
Jobs with Justice
Just Foreign Policy
Liberation in a Generation
MPower Change
National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights
New York Communities For Change
Oil Change U.S.
Open Markets Institute
Open MIC (Open Media & Information Companies Initiative)
Organic Consumers Association
Our Revolution
Partnership for Working Families
People's Parity Project
Presente.org
Progress America
Public Citizen
Revolving Door Project
RootsAction.org
Social Security Works
Strong Economy For All Coalition
SumOfUs
Sunrise Movement
Take on Wall Street
Ultraviolet
Voices for Progress
Win Without War
Working Families Party
X-Lab

About Demand Progress
Demand Progress and our more than two million members seek to protect the democratic character of the internet – and wield it to make government accountable and contest concentrated corporate power. For more information, visit: https://demandprogress.org/.

About Revolving Door Project
The Revolving Door Project (RDP), a project of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), scrutinizes executive branch appointees to ensure they use their office to serve the broad public interest, rather than to entrench corporate power or seek personal advancement. For more information, visit: https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/.

TO: Interested Parties
FROM: The Revolving Door Project and Demand Progress
DATE: November 13, 2020
RE: How Biden’s Cabinet Could Doom Democrats

The Revolving Door Project and Demand Progress are leading the push to urge President-elect Biden to keep corporate lobbyists and executives out of his administration. It’s not just in the public interest -- it’s also good politics.

If the President-elect embraces a populist economic message, and deploys all the tools of the executive branch to deliver for regular people, a Biden administration can not only hold the line, but expand the party’s power in the 2022 elections. To make it happen, Biden will need to appoint high-energy, creative officials who wake up every morning determined to do all they can to advance the public interest, not those who remain beholden to corporations and private profit. But if Biden fails to use the powers available to him, and instead builds an administration by and for corporate interests, Democrats up and down the ballot will get destroyed in the midterms.

That’s why a broad coalition of progressive and good government groups sent a letter to President-elect Biden Thursday urging him not to nominate or hire corporate executives, lobbyists, or prominent corporate consultants to serve in his administration.

The groups, led by Demand Progress and the Revolving Door Project, instead urged Biden to elevate people who have “proven track records of prioritizing the general welfare,” represent the broad diversity of our country, and “have demonstrated that they prioritize the needs of communities of color and service in the public interest.”

“If necessary, we urge you to accomplish this by using tools like the Vacancy Act and recess appointments to overcome any obstruction by Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans,” the letter adds. A similar letter was also sent to Democratic Senators and Senators-elect, urging them not to confirm any lobbyists or corporate executives and consultants to serve in the Biden administration.

The Top Ten Appointments We’re Watching

The executive branch encompasses over 4,000 appointments made by the President, but some naturally wield more sway than others. Here is the Revolving Door Project’s list of the 10 most powerful appointees in the federal executive branch — some of which most people have heard of, and some of which fly under the radar, despite their impact on our daily lives:

Chief of Staff. The President’s Chief of Staff is the single most powerful non-Senate confirmed position in the executive branch. They control which advisors get facetime with the President, which documents make it to his desk, and oversee all White House decisions in which the President is not personally involved.
Treasury Secretary. The Treasury Department is a massive institution with roles in practically all parts of government spending, financial and commerce regulation, tax collection, and even international trade. The Treasury Secretary is thus one of the single most influential figures in the American economy, with a wide range of policy tools at their disposal.
Office of Management and Budget Director. OMB holds the keys to the government’s ability to spend money. If OMB doesn’t allocate funds for your agency, your agency is hamstrung. OMB also helps coordinate personnel hiring for the civil service, and designs performance metrics for agencies and departments that can impact their budgets, affecting how the entire government sees its purpose.
National Economic Council Director. The NEC is an extremely powerful corps of advisers who advise the President on anything related to economic policy. The NEC Director also leads a group of hires who conduct research and design policy for the Council to consider. This group can be extremely influential on a President’s thinking about any given economic policy question.
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Director. OIRA is perhaps the most powerful agency that almost no one outside of the Beltway has heard of. It can issue direct orders to regulators housed within Cabinet departments, and can also slow down their work product considerably. With the wrong Director, such as Cass Sunstein under Barack Obama, OIRA can be a corporate lobbyist’s ace in the hole for fending off needed regulation of their sector.
Attorney General. The law is only as effective as its enforcement, and the Department of Justice has both considerable powers and considerable discretion about whether to use them. The DOJ can bring antitrust lawsuits, prosecute white-collar crime, pursue tax evasion, and investigate global fraud. The DOJ can also pursue investigations into police brutality and systemic racism.
US Trade Representative. The US Trade Representative gets to — almost unilaterally — represent the U.S. in negotiating and enforcing (or not enforcing) international trade agreements, which tend to be wide-ranging and accompanied by heavy corporate lobbying. The nature of international treaties means the USTR can override domestic law and provide corporate America with a rigged alternative to the judicial system.
Secretary of Labor. The Department of Labor has broad powers over enforcing fair bargaining rules between workers and employers, ensuring workplaces are safe and hospitable, protecting workers’ ability to save for retirement without being cheated, and more. Depending on its leadership, the DOL can be either an aide to workers or an ally to bosses.
Secretary of State. The nation’s top diplomat coordinates America’s relationships with the world’s nations and international institutions, and is inevitably one of the President’s top advisers on almost any issue. In a globalized economy and culture, practically every issue touches on diplomatic relations.
Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General. The Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General is third-in-command of the DOJ. All of the divisions which affect economic issues (antitrust, tax, foreign claims settlement…) and domestic social issues (civil rights, policing...), as well as the environment and natural resources division, all report up directly to this one person.

Revolving Door Project founder Jeff Hauser and Demand Progress executive director David Segal are available to speak about their efforts to urge Biden to staff his administration without relying on executives and lobbyists from big corporations, and to align Democrats (and Biden) behind the strategy of using the Vacancy Act and recess appointments to get around Mitch McConnell’s obstructionism, if necessary:

Jeff Hauser, Executive Director, Revolving Door Project
Jeff Hauser is the founder and director of the Revolving Door Project. He is regularly cited by a broad array of media outlets, including Bloomberg, Politico, Washington Post, HuffPost, Roll Call, Daily Beast, National Journal, Vice, The Guardian, and The Intercept. Before founding the Revolving Door Project in 2015, Hauser spent more than three years leading the AFL-CIO’s political media, economic policy outreach, and labor communications for their immigration reform campaign. Hauser brings a wide variety of expertise in politics and the progressive movement learned from running a congressional campaign and as the deputy campaign manager of the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR, since renamed America’s Voice). It was Hauser’s frustration as a young trust-buster in the George W. Bush-era Justice Department that taught him the power of the executive branch and provided the zeal for reform that is now funneled into the Revolving Door Project. In addition to the AFL-CIO, CCIR, and DOJ, Hauser has worked at MoveOn.org, served as executive director of Majority Action and Accountability Now, and as campaign manager of Shulman for Congress. His first jobs in politics were working for Wes Clark’s 2004 presidential campaign and then serving as political director for the National Jewish Democratic Council from 2004 until early 2007. Hauser is a graduate of Harvard College (1995) and N.Y.U. School of Law (2001).

David Segal, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Demand Progress
David Segal is a former Democratic Rhode Island State Representative, and served on the Providence City Council as a member of the Green Party. During his eight years as an elected official he oversaw the passage of legislation promoting economic justice, renewable energy and open space, banking reform, affordable housing, LGBT rights, criminal justice reform, and a variety of other progressive causes. He recently ran in the Democratic primary for Rhode Island’s first Congressional seat, supported by much of the netroots and organized labor. His opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, and in a variety of online publications. He has a degree in mathematics from Columbia University.