A report titled Revolving Door released by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) brings to light some interesting facts about what former Bush cabinet members have been up to since resigning their positions with the Bush administration. The report, which was issued on January 12, 2009, sets forth the results of a six-month investigation conducted by CREW focusing on former Bush administration officers and cabinet members who now hold lucrative jobs in the companies they once regulated, as well as some holding jobs lobbying the federal government.

Generally, the report findings show:

According to CREW’s Executive Director, Melanie Sloan, the investigation has shown that “most of these former Bush administration officials have cannily leveraged their time spent in the public sector. By using their government positions as springboards to new lucrative opportunities, they have successfully made a mint on the backs of American taxpayers. It may be legal, but it is certainly not honorable.”

Before going on to name names, CREW states in its Executive Summary that CREW relied on the Senate Open Public Records website for information on lobbying activities.

While the Revolving Door is an excellent start at calling out the Bush administration officials who have profited off their public service records, it must be mentioned that the list and the information contained in that report may only be scratching the surface of this problem.

According to two BNA Press Reports issued on January 14, 2008 “3,552 Possible LDA Violations Referred to DOJ But Few Cases Apparently Pursued,” and January 22, 2008, “U.S. Attorney Has 900 Unresolved Referrals of Possible Lobbying Violations, Official Says,” there has been little action taken against violators of the the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, which was enacted to attempt to maintain a degree of transparency in the activities of lobbyists whereby lobbyists are required to register with the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate.

Thus, while laws have been firmly enacted to track the activities of public servants who leave office to pursue lobbying jobs in the private sector, it appears once again that the right hand does not know what the left is doing and what should be prosecutable violations of the Act are left to linger while the lobbyists gain the upper hand in Washington.

According to GAO Report Number GAO-09-67, the U.S. Government spends approximately $16 billion annually in federal farm program payments, a good portion of which is handed out to individuals and various business entities that exceed income eligibility limits.

The report states that out of the 1.8 million recipients getting subsidy payments from the years 2003 through 2006, a whopping 2,702 of them had adjusted gross incomes that exceeded the $2.5 million cap. On top of that, these individuals and/or corporate entities were shown to derive less than three-quarters of their income from farming, ranching or forestry which, under the law, would render them ineligible for the subsidy payments as well.

Nevertheless, $49 million was paid to these entities by the USDA. The USDA cited a number of reasons for the erroneous payments; namely, inadequate resources to properly examine tax and financial information of the individuals receiving the subsidies along with a lack of authority to obtain tax filer data from the individuals for the purposes of reconciling the figures with the requests for subsidies. For this reason, there was virtually no verification process in place to determine which of the entities requesting subsidies were actually qualified to receive them.

Under the 2008 Farm Bill, income eligibility caps have been significantly lowered, thereby increasing the possibility that even more individuals and/or corporate entities will fall into the category of being ineligible for the subsidies as they may easily pass the threshold of a lower cap. However, without adequate resources to determine an entity’s eligibility, this just means that more erroneous subsidy payments will be made to those who apply for but who do not qualify for the assistance.