As Donald Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, works to block transparency about how many former lobbyists Trump has working on the issues they used to lobby about, the Office of Government Ethics is sending a reminder of just how it started its policy of publicly posting the ethics waivers that allow those hires. Go figure: Eight years ago, Republicans said transparency about lobbyist hires was suuuuper important.
Eight years ago, [Republican Sen. Chuck] Grassley asked the OGE to force “the Obama administration to live up to its word.”
“As a senior member of the United States Senate, I have consistently worked to ensure that the business of the Government is done in as open and transparent manner as possible,” Grassley wrote in his June 10, 2009, letter to OGE’s then-director Robert Cusick.
[OGE director Walter] Shaub wrote in his letter Monday to Mulvaney that it was Grassley’s letter that prompted his office to develop a policy of posting ethics waivers for the Obama administration.
“However, the current Administration has not been complying with this established practice,” Shaub wrote.
Now, Republicans say that transparency isn’t important and the Office of Government Ethics doesn’t have oversight over the White House and screw ethics, anyway. (That last part is implicit.)
Shaub is not backing down and has let Mulvaney know that he expects information on the waivers within 10 days.