News Coverage
How Cozy Is Too Cozy?
Published July 18, 2003
There is no dispute about the terms of the deferred-compensation plan worked out in 2001 between Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and his former employer, a lobbying firm called National Environmental Strategies. To buy out the equity stake that Griles had accumulated as a partner in the firm before his move to Interior, the firm agreed to pay him four annual installments of $284,000 through 2004.
The agreement won the blessing of government ethics officials, and it enabled Griles to win Senate confirmation two years ago. But the payments -- and the possible conflicts of interest they engendered -- have touched a raw nerve in Washington and sparked a debate about how to ensure that one-time lobbyists who enter government service are not unduly influenced by the policy desires of their former firms' clients.
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