Vela’s recusal that the congressman said he would resign in the next few weeks and go work for Akin Gump. He won’t be going far. His future employer’s office is just a couple of miles from the Capitol on K Street, the notorious lobbying corridor. But Vela is just the latest member of Congress from Texas to make that well-trodden trek. With a record number of Texas incumbents leaving Congress in recent years—either by choice or by the ballot box—the revolving door is spinning at a ferocious pace.
“The revolving door is the most pernicious form of influence-peddling that we have not gotten control over yet,” Holman told the. Firms are “hiring [former members] for their connections in Congress, to cash in on those connections on behalf of paying clients. Even though some may not actually become registered lobbyists, they’re all still hired for lobbying work. It’s really an abuse of their positions.
“He can be part of the lobbying campaign. He can organize it, enlist the lobbyists, tell them who to call, and how to talk to them. He just can’t pick up the phone himself,” Holman said. “It’s a loophole-ridden policy.”
Lobbying is where the real money is for these guys...