Bills introduced this week in the Michigan House aim to put up a bigger wall between lawmakers and lobbyists.
The legislation would require lawmakers and high-level public officials—like the governor and department heads—to wait at least two years after leaving office before becoming a lobbyist.
Representative Jerry Neyer (R-Shepherd) is a co-sponsor on the package. He said the practice of going immediately from one place to the other is a bad look. Especially as lawmakers reach the end of their time in office.
“The biggest concern at all is, there is, especially when you get to lame duck and people are being term limited out; they're looking for that next job. And they're an easy target for lobbyists,” Neyer said.
The legislation would also stop lawmakers from working to lobby other state governments while in office. Republicans have been pushing that point since a former state lawmaker had lobbied on behalf of the National Popular Vote campaign outside of Michigan.
This isn’t the first time lawmakers have tried to distance serving members from the lobbying corps.
Last year, a Democratic-sponsored bill to create a one year cooling off period between leaving office and becoming a lobbyist made it out of a House committee. But neither it, nor the other bills introduced by both Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of the Legislature, got any further.
Neyer said things will be different this time now that Republicans have taken back the House.
“Especially when we have a Republican House and a Democratic Senate, there's going to be more of an effort to make these issues bipartisan,” Neyer said.
Republican House leadership has frequently brought it up as a top priority when discussing government transparency legislation.
