revolvdoor
<b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">this is a tag, see also node spelled out</font></b><div><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></b></div><div><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see also Staffer, lobbyist, pension plan</font></b></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">school of delay?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Our Town thesis is basically no one goes home,ever (see also bench strength advantage gop; all sell out now, but gop better at it?)</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">===
3/16
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<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">rev dr</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As it moves ahead with its <a href="http://www.dow.com/news/press-releases/dupont%20and%20dow%20to%20combine%20in%20merger%20of%20equals" target="_blank">$130 billion merger</a>
with fellow chemical giant Dow, DuPont has made quite a hire. To lead
the company's "public policy and government affairs strategies," DuPont
has tapped <a href="http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=bio-harden.xml" target="_blank">Krysta Harden</a>,
who just ended a six-plus-year stint at the US Department of
Agriculture, where she served as chief of staff to Secretary Tom Vilsack
and, most recently, as deputy secretary, the department's No. 2
position.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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<div class="caption"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong>Krysta Harden </strong><font size="4">DuPont</font></font></div>
</div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Harden's move from the USDA to DuPont is not her first whirl through the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=12399" target="blank">revolving door</a> separating industries from the government watchdogs that regulate them. According to her <a href="http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=bio-harden.xml" target="blank">USDA bio</a>,
she started her career on Capitol Hill, where she worked as staff
director for the House subcommittee on peanuts and tobacco and as chief
of staff and press secretary for former Rep. Charles Hatcher (D-Ga.),
who was defeated in 1992. From there, she moved to Gordley Associates,
which handles "<a href="https://soygrowers.com/about-asa/washington-dc/" target="_blank">legislative initiatives"</a>
for the American Soybean Association. The soybean-industry lobbying
stint lasted until 2004. After a stretch as CEO of the National
Association of Conservation Districts, Harden moved to the USDA in 2009,
where she started as assistant secretary for congressional relations
before working up to the No. 2 spot under chief Vilsack.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Harden is joining DuPont before the deal with Dow is fully
consummated, but when it is the combined company plans to split into
three independent parts, one of which will likely emerge as the <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/12/dupont-dow-merger-spwans-new-pesticidegmo-seed-behemoth" target="blank">globe's biggest agrichemical/seed company</a>, bigger even than rivals Monsanto and Syngenta.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">7/15</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Washington’s notorious revolving door was in full swing again last week as the health insurance industry snagged another top federal official to help it get what it wants out of lawmakers and regulators. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman" size="4">America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s biggest lobbying and PR group, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/us/ex-medicare-chief-marilyn-tavenner-top-lobbyist.html?r=0" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">announced Wednesday</a> that its new president, starting next month, will be none other than Marilyn Tavenner, who served as the chief administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services from 2013 until she stepped down in February.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Tavenner’s appointment comes just a few months after the industry <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/27/17240/former-rep-allyson-schwartzs-new-group-better-medicare-alliance-not-what-it-appears" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">recruited</a> <b>former Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, a Pennsylvania Democrat,</b> to head its newest front group, the Better Medicare Alliance.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">These two hires tell us all we need to know about where insurance companies see their pot of gold in the not-too-distant future. Some insurers, in fact, have already discovered that taxpayer-supplied pot of gold and want to make doubly sure that nobody in Washington dares take it away.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The pot of gold is the Medicare Advantage program, which over the past several years has become an increasingly important revenue stream for the country’s insurers, especially the big for-profit corporations. <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/07/13/17647/gop-myth-obamacare-driving-insurance-mergers" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">As I wrote last week</a>, one of the main reasons behind the recently announced consolidation in the insurance industry—Aetna offering $37 billion for Humana and Anthem bidding $54 billion for Cigna—is the desire of the acquiring companies to boost their presence in the privately-run Medicare business.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">I’ll have to admit, the Tavenner announcement caught me a little off guard. But after thinking about it for a couple of minutes, I realized it made perfect sense. It probably has been in the works for months, maybe even before she left CMS or at least since May, when AHIP’s longtime CEO, Karen Ignagni, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/karen-ignagni-leaving-ahip-118182.html" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">said she was leaving</a> to become CEO of EmblemHealth, a New York insurance company.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This Washington version of musical chairs should have been clear from the way lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle warmed up to Tavenner when President Obama nominated her to lead CMS, which oversees a budget that is inching toward a trillion dollars a year. The Senate vote to confirm Tavenner on May 15, 2013 was 91-7, an indication that AHIP had told its friends on Capitol Hill that insurers liked her.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A big chunk of that federal money is now flowing through the insurance industry, so much so that many companies have become dependent on it to sustain their profits. The efforts by some of those companies to recruit Medicare eligible Americans into their privately operated (but publicly financed) Medicare Advantage programs have been wildly successful. As many as one in three of the country’s senior (65 and older) and disabled citizens are now enrolled in a private plan.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By far the largest Medicare Advantage insurers are <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20141217/BLOG/312179996" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and Aetna</a>. More than half of all the 16.6 million Medicare Advantage enrollees as of Dec. 1 last year were in plans administered by one of those four companies, all but Kaiser of which are investor-owned. Just two companies—UnitedHealthcare and Humana—controlled 37 percent of the market. If the Aetna-Humana deal is approved by regulators, at least 44 percent of the market will be controlled by two companies.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">While Humana has operated private Medicare plans for more than two decades, its competitors are relatively new to the business. I can recall my former CEO at Cigna, Ed Hanway, turning his nose up at Medicare money as recently as the mid-2000s. He told investors he didn’t see the government as a reliable partner because of the changes that can occur in the Medicare Advantage program’s funding, depending on who is in the White House. CEOs’ attitudes began to change, however, as they watched Humana’s bottom line swell along with its Medicare membership.</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">5/15</font></div><div><p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432137493279_77691" style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 5px 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://opensecrets.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aa7cf182bf7041258bb250f9d&id=151ab1da6b&e=44dfb36771" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;">CRP’s revolving door data</a>, which we will continue to update, shows that 42 of the 75 who left Capitol Hill at the end of the last Congress or sometime during that two-year term are currently employed — 18 of them by lobbying firms or law firms that also lobby.</font></p><p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432137493279_77688" style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 5px 0px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">They include, among others, former Sen. <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://opensecrets.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=aa7cf182bf7041258bb250f9d&id=2cb716fbe0&e=44dfb36771" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;">Mark Begich</a> (D-Alaska), who lost his bid for re-election and is now a “strategic advisor” at <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://opensecrets.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aa7cf182bf7041258bb250f9d&id=2f795c226e&e=44dfb36771" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;">Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck</a>; Rep. <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://opensecrets.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aa7cf182bf7041258bb250f9d&id=33ac351abc&e=44dfb36771" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;">Lee Terry</a> (R-Neb.), one of only two incumbent GOP House members to lose his seat in the 2014 Republican wave and now a senior adviser at <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://opensecrets.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=aa7cf182bf7041258bb250f9d&id=4e18aa4a8f&e=44dfb36771" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432137493279_77690" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;">Kelley, Drye & Warren</a>; and Reps. <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://opensecrets.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aa7cf182bf7041258bb250f9d&id=9cc3fe94e2&e=44dfb36771" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;">Jim Matheson</a> (D-Utah) and <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://opensecrets.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=aa7cf182bf7041258bb250f9d&id=19437ec804&e=44dfb36771" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;">Jack Kingston</a> (R-Ga.), who were both poached by powerhouse firm <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://opensecrets.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aa7cf182bf7041258bb250f9d&id=4443f65012&e=44dfb36771" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;">Squire Patton Boggs</a>. Matheson retired, while Kingston lost his bid for a Senate seat to <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://opensecrets.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aa7cf182bf7041258bb250f9d&id=11e8a86f12&e=44dfb36771" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;">David Perdue</a> (R).
</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">finance reform <span style="line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Last week, I visited an alternate universe. The real world sees a pandemic of bank misconduct, but to the white-collar defense lawyers of Washington, the banks are the victims as they bow beneath the weight of regulators' remarkably harsh punishments.</span></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">I was attending the <a href="http://www.securitiesenforcement.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 98, 204); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">Securities Enforcement Forum</a>, a gathering of top regulators and white-collar defense worthies. The marquee section was a panel that included Andrew Ceresney, the current S.E.C. enforcement director, and five of his predecessors. Four of those former S.E.C. officials represent corporations at prominent white-collar law firms: Robert S. Khuzami, President Obama's first enforcement director who now plies his trade at Kirkland & Ellis; Linda Chatman Thomsen, who served at the George W. Bush-era S.E.C. and now works for Davis Polk & Wardwell; William R. McLucas, the longest-serving agency enforcement director who is now at WilmerHale; and George S. Canellos, who just left the Obama S.E.C. to work for Milbank Tweed. (The well-known Stanley Sporkin, who served in the agency in the 1970s, rounded the panel out.)</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div>