REVOLVING DOOR SPOTLIGHT 7/7/2021
Welcome to our supplemental newsletter, the Revolving Door Spotlight. Here, we review the open jobs in the Biden administration we have our eyes on. To learn more about which agencies and positions specific industries are seeking to influence, as well as the industry-tied individuals who might seek to lead them, check out our Industry Agenda reports here and our Personnel Map here.
Justice
United States Attorneys: Across the country, the 93 US Attorneys are the local face of the federal government’s criminal legal system. Within their respective regional jurisdictions, each is responsible for criminal enforcement on issues ranging from civil rights and police misconduct to white-collar crime and drug charges, with significant discretion over what to prioritize with their limited resources. In addition to deciding who to pursue, these officials control how harshly defendants will be punished via charging criminal offenses. US Attorneys serve four-year terms. As such there are already numerous vacancies as well as several Trump-era holdovers across the Department of Justice. Rather than drawing on the same tough-on-crime prosecutors and corporate law attorneys who have overwhelmingly controlled U.S. Attorneys’ offices for decades, Biden should appoint reform-minded state and local prosecutors or public defenders.
Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division: A position that will have enormous power reining in monopolistic industries, including Big Tech, the head of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division should be willing to scrutinize our highly-consolidated economy and aggressively sue to enforce antitrust laws. After years of platforms like Facebook and YouTube swallowing all online advertising revenue while allowing violent and hateful rhetoric to flow freely and exacerbate far-right radicalization, and billions of dollars spent by Big Tech lobbyists to block government regulation, Biden’s head antitrust lawyer will play a key role in protecting and restoring democracy and economic liberties. That’s to say nothing of the many other hyper-consolidated industries in the American economy, including Big Ag, telecomms, and Wall Street. Unfortunately, Big Tech has already been pushing Biden to appoint their top lawyers and allies to run the agency currently investigating them for violating anti-monopoly laws. Biden must resist this pressure and select an individual who will serve the public interest, not Big Tech.
Assistant Attorney General, Tax Division: ProPublica’s recent series revealing the meager effective tax rates of most of the country’s wealthiest individuals highlights the need for public officials ready and equipped to adequately enforce the tax code. As the reports show, for far too long, many of the country’s richest people have exploited all possible avenues to avoid paying their fair share in taxes. The head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division is charged with the responsibility of fairly enforcing the nation’s tax laws through both civil and criminal litigation. Fair minded enforcement is critical to maintaining the public's confidence in the integrity of the tax system. Whoever is appointed to this position will need to commit to creating a just and fair tax system by aggressively enforcing the country’s tax laws. Biden has already promised to beef up the Internal Revenue Service and raise the corporate tax rate. It is equally important that he hires an individual ready to fully implement these changes to the tax system.
Assistant Attorney General, Office Of Justice Programs: The Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs is responsible for providing federal leadership on the country’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice and assist crime victims. The office partners with federal, state, local and tribal agencies to develop and implement criminal and juvenile justice programs. The office is led by an assistant attorney general who sets the office’s policy and develops programs to reflect the President’s priorities. As the murder of the George Floyd and summer of protests that followed showed, there is an urgent need to completely revamp policing in the United States. The Office of Justice Programs can play a key role in this process by properly informing the public of ongoing police misconduct, preparing research that adequately highlights the rot in the nation’s criminal justice system, and potentially leveraging federal grant programs to encourage greater accountability. As Biden continues to redefine his stance on crime and criminal justice, he should appoint an assistant attorney general who embodies a vision of a system that justly treats all.
Solicitor General: The Office of the Solicitor General represents the federal government at the Supreme Court. The Solicitor General decides not only in which cases the government will file a brief at the Supreme Court, but also determines the government’s position. The Solicitor General is also responsible for determining whether to appeal decisions made by lower courts. Biden’s Department of Justice has already committed to defending numerous Trump-era cases before the Supreme Court on issues ranging from immigration to environmental protection. As we have noted elsewhere, Donald Trump’s DOJ made a mockery of the law, and Biden-appointed officials should be moving quickly to drop, reverse and settle cases left behind by the previous administration. The country is in a desperate need for a Solicitor General who is committed to protecting immigrants’ rights and advocating for effective environmental protections.
Director, Executive Office for Immigration Review: Despite promising to reverse most of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, one of the Biden administration’s early moves was to appoint seventeen Trump-vetted officials to the country’s immigration courts. Despite this, Biden could quickly set his administration back on the right track by appointing a Director who truly believes in a just and humane immigration system to the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). The EOIR conducts immigration court proceedings and is responsible for fairly adjudicating immigration cases. However, due to purposeful neglect and politicization of the immigration process by the Trump administration, immigration courts denied 72 percent of asylum claims in 2020. This is just one of the many issues Biden’s EOIR director would need to address to create a fair and just immigration system that welcomes all.
Financial Regulation
Comptroller of the Currency: The head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has immense power over the financial industry as one of its top regulators. The office distributes and manages charters for national banks and sets rules about how much risk banks can take on. Since the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the Comptroller’s office has had greatly expanded powers to investigate banks’ actual balance sheets. Technically, this individual will have the power to decide which activities are considered “banking” and thus subject to the OCC’s regulation. They can also move forward with, or put a stop to, the effort of previous Comptrollers to “preempt” states from properly regulating fintech providers. The OCC also has the ability to set and enforce regulations that require banks to consider climate impact in risk assessments. The nascent “fintech” industry, which produces apps for financial activities like lending or investing, is particularly interested in undermining the Comptroller’s regulatory powers, including its enforcement of Know Your Customer anti-money laundering requirements. Many fintech firms would like to see current KYC requirements replaced with digital surveillance technology, allowing these firms to track users’ fingerprints, voices, and other biometrics.
Governor, Federal Reserve System: One seat remains open on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. An additional two or three seats will become available within the next seven months. These members serve fourteen year terms, and their votes shape monetary policy for the entire dollar-based financial system. Their decisions can promote a financial system that is safe, inclusive, and stable, or promote big banks’ risky speculation. The Federal Reserve manages the policy levers that determine full employment, a key part of the Biden administration’s economic agenda. The Federal Reserve also plays an important role in the climate finance arena, where it has the tools to drive climate action and ensure financial stability. Biden’s Federal Reserve nominee must be fully prepared to pursue an agenda that prioritizes full employment, robust bank regulation, and environmental protection.
Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service: Naturally, the IRS Commissioner oversees tax collection policies and priorities. Even Larry Summers has noted that if we just collected the taxes already on the books and redirected auditing resources from harassing the desperate to cracking down on the opulent, we’d both generate enormous government revenue and (more importantly) have a far more equitable society. Current IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig’s term, appointed by Trump after defending Trump’s decision to hide his tax returns and being the owner of Trump branded condos, is due to end in November 2022. However, there is actually nothing preventing the President from firing the IRS Commissioner at any time — the IRS is not an independent agency. Rettig, who worked as a tax attorney for some of the country’s wealthiest individuals, has spent his time in office disproportionately auditing claimants of the Earned Tax Income Credit while cutting audits of the largest corporations. To achieve his goal of strengthening the IRS and revamping the tax system to raise rates on large corporations, Biden must fire Rettig and appoint a commissioner ready to aggressively pursue tax enforcement against all -- including where the money is, i.e., with the rich.
Commissioner, Commodity Futures Trading Commission: The CFTC regulates the U.S. derivatives market, working closely with the Securities and Exchange Commission to promote competitive futures markets and protect investors. Former CFTC chair, Gary Gensler demonstrated the value of a progressive champion at the independent agency introducing rules and enforcement actions to regulate Wall Street’s often reckless over-the-counter derivatives markets. Biden has already shown a commitment to upholding public interest with his appointments to other independent agencies (Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau). He should continue in this vein when appointing a new chair and commissioner to the CFTC.
Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: OIRA is perhaps the most powerful agency that almost no one outside of the Beltway has heard of. It wields direct oversight and veto power over most of the American regulatory state — it can issue orders to most regulators housed within Cabinet departments and has considerable influence over independent agencies too. It claims to conduct “cost-benefit analysis” to decide if a given regulation is worth the cost, but this necessarily requires so many subjective calls that it’s essentially up to the whims of the agency whether they view a given regulation as too costly. If OIRA does decide a proposed rule would be too burdensome, it’s usually back to the drawing board for that regulation, no matter how much time or energy is wasted and how drastic the consequences may be. OIRA has too often been a corporate lobbyist’s ace in the hole for fending off tough regulation of their sector, even (especially!) under Democratic presidents. We are encouraged to see that Sharon Block, a union ally and critic of deregulation, was appointed to lead the office in an acting capacity.
*Have a position you would like to add to our list? Email iwayemi@therevolvingdoorproject.org
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