Thirty-one ex-US lawmakers and staffers have joined the military-industrial complex as lobbyists or contractors in the past 10 years, says a report.
The report by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists shared an “eye-opening glimpse at the links between two congressional committees and more than 100 defense contractors, consultants, and lobbyists” that reveals the intrinsic ethical conflicts related to shifting from the public sector to the private sector.
The report stated that in the last decade alone, 31 former members of Congress and top staff have left Capitol Hill and joined the military-industrial complex as lobbyists or contractors.
Twenty-one of those named in the report served on either the House or Senate Armed Services Committee, the legislative bodies that set the Pentagon’s annual policies through the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
Ten more were former senior committee staffers who transitioned to working as weapons industry government liaisons or lobbyists.
The report highlights the potential for corruption when officials wielding political influence in government move to the private sector and are offered highly compensated positions at firms working as military contractors.
The report also offers a glimpse at the military-industrial complex’s “revolving door,” through which ex-lawmakers setting the Pentagon’s agenda in the US Congress are transformed into privateers cashing in on those same policies in the private sector.
“That report we published is the most direct explanation we’ve ever seen of why the defense budget always goes up,” said John Mecklin, the author of the report and former editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists report underscores the potential ethics conflicts, focusing in particular on the growing relationship between Congress and Silicon Valley military tech startups.
