Obama team declares restrictions on lobbyists

Source: Xinhua | 11-12-2008 07:51

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's transition team announced Tuesday sweeping ethics rules for the interim period until his inauguration, putting restrictions on lobbyists.

Pledging the transition to be "most open and transparent in history," John Podesta, co-chair of Obama transition team, detailed a ban on gifts and funds from lobbyists and a one-year time restriction between lobbying and working for the transition.

He said 450 people are employed by the transition, which has a budget of 12 million U.S. dollars.

Of that sum, 5.2 million dollars in taxpayer dollars was appropriated by Congress.

The team will raise money to supplement the rest, but will abide by the same rules Obama used in the campaign:

No money from federal registered lobbyists, corporations or political action committees. The maximum contribution allowed will be 5,000 dollars.

Money for the Jan. 20 inauguration will be handled separately, Podesta said.

He said Obama himself will make announcements about Cabinet posts, and repeated what he said over the weekend that presidents-elect, with a few exceptions, have not named their appointees until December.

Podesta said the lobbyist rules for Obama administration will be announced later.

Lobbyists have become almost a fourth branch of government, and analysts have said that despite Obama's protestations, it would be difficult to dramatically lessen their influence in Washington.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei