Joint Project Tracks Where Ex-Congressmen are Working

The Center for Responsive Politics and
public policy journal Remapping Debate have today
released the first listings in an
interactive tracking tool that allows the public to explore
where outgoing senators and representatives from the 111th Congress
are now employed.

Whether former members of Congress are
now working for lobbying firms, law practices, public relations
companies or other entities, this tracking tool will keep tabs.

"Powerful political leaders often are
working one day on behalf of the public's interest, and then in the
next, they're being paid handsomely to represent the goals of
special interests. This warrants monitoring so that people
understand how their former officials are now attempting to
influence public discourse and legislation," said Sheila Krumholz,
the Center for Responsive Politics' executive director.

Craig Gurian, the editor of Remapping
Debate, added: "As important as it is to shed light on the revolving
door between government and the lobbying world specifically, it is
also critical to make more visible other connections of power and
influence. This joint project, which looks broadly at all the
interests that former members of Congress have decided to serve,
will help increase public awareness of these varied
connections."

Senators may not legally become
registered lobbyists for two years after they leave Congress, and
House representatives are banned for one year after they leave.

But many of them have already taken steps
in that direction, the Center for Responsive Politics and Remapping
Debate find. So far, 13 of 19 outgoing senators from the 111th
Congress have declared their post-Congress employment plans, and
five of them are working in the government relations industry.

Implementation of the tracker can be
found on the websites of each organization at OpenSecrets.org
and RemappingDebate.org.

The tracker will be updated as more
information becomes available about the outgoing members of the
111th Congress, and the Center for Responsive Politics and Remapping
Debate invite colleagues and the public to help
us make the tracker comprehensive.

The Center for Responsive Politics
is the nation's premier research group tracking and reporting on
money in U.S. federal politics and its effect on elections and
public policy. The nonpartisan, nonprofit Center aims to create a
more educated voter, an involved citizenry and a more transparent
and responsive government. The Center's award-winning website,
OpenSecrets.org, is the most comprehensive resource for campaign
contributions, lobbying data and analysis available anywhere. The
Center relies on support from a combination of foundation grants,
individual contributions and custom data work. The Center accepts no
contributions from businesses, labor unions or trade
associations.

Remapping Debate, an
online public policy news journal, believes that there is a
fundamental (and democracy-corroding) paradox about the media
ecosystem that needs to be addressed: for all the outlets and for
all the bytes, the "why" and "why not" questions of public policy
are too rarely addressed. Remapping Debate seeks to address this
deficiency through probing reporting that asks these questions and
thereby encourages more robust public policy debate.