Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump listed a series of reforms aimed at government lobbyists, proposing a five-year ban for members of Congress and executive branch officials who aim to take on lobbying jobs after leaving government.
He also proposed a lifetime ban on senior executive branch officials lobbying for foreign governments, and called on Congress to change campaign finance laws to restrict lobbyists for foreign governments from raising money for U.S. elections, according to The Washington Post.
The proposals appear to be in response to information hacked by WikiLeaks that show Clinton campaign officials discussing whether to accept money from lobbyists for foreign governments. Those discussions appeared to result in accepting the donations, according to CBS News.
A loophole in federal lobbying law says that lobbyists who spend less than 20 percent of their time lobbying is not required to call themselves lobbyists, but can use titles such as consultant or adviser. Trump wants to change that rule.
"I am going to expand the definition of lobbyist so we close all the loopholes that former government officials use by labeling themselves consultants, advisers, all these different things," he said at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Current ethics rules require a "cooling-off period" of one year for former House members before they can lobby Congress, and two years for former senators. Former members of the executive branch must wait one or two years before they can lobby their former agency, depending on their seniority.
Trump's proposals do not cover lobbyists joining a presidential administration, just government officials and lawmakers becoming lobbyists.
"This will go a long way in ending government corruption," Trump said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
President Barack Obama mostly barred lobbyists from his administration, but allowed a few to serve. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton appears to be open to allowing lobbyists to participate, the Post reports.
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