Harris Limits Corporate Lobbyists’ Role on Transition Team (1)

Vice President Kamala Harris will bar members of her presidential transition team from lobbying federal agency officials for a year after their service ends, in an effort to curb companies’ influence over her administration’s agenda.

Transition lawyers will have to approve any exceptions in writing, according to the team’s ethics code. Lobbyists that have registered to influence the federal government in the past year will also need approval from the transition’s counsel to join the team.

Harris laid out the requirements as part of broader planning for if she wins the presidency in November. A new administration will need to fill 4,000 jobs. Presidential candidates have historically begun planning for the changeover months before Election Day.

Transition team members that work in the private sector must take a leave of absence from those jobs or volunteer on the transition using their personal time, according to the code.

They won’t be allowed to trade stocks during their service or accept gifts from people seeking jobs in the new administration. Foreign nationals aren’t eligible to join without approval from the transition’s counsel.

Yohannes Abraham, the Biden administration’s former ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is leading Harris’ transition effort. He served as executive director of the Biden-Harris transition in 2020, alongside White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.).

The Harris team’s requirements are nearly identical to those imposed by the Biden-Harris transition in 2020. That team included hundreds of volunteers from government, nonprofits, and the private sector who helped prepare the incoming administration to take over federal agencies.

A few of the transition team members joined the administration after Inauguration Day, including now-Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler.

Former President Donald Trump hasn’t laid out ethics requirements for his transition team, a General Services Administration spokeswoman said. The agency asked for them by Oct. 1.

The former president’s lawyers are working on executing contracts with the GSA, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a text message on behalf of the transition’s leaders. All Trump transition staff have signed an ethics pledge as a requirement of their participation, he said.

Cantor Fitzgerald LP chief executive officer Howard Lutnick and World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon are jointly chairing Trump’s presidential transition team.