Take a spin through the Revolving Door Database

Take a spin through the Revolving Door database

Although the influence powerhouses that line Washington's K Street are just a few miles from the U.S. Capitol building, the most direct path between the two doesn't necessarily involve public transportation. Instead, it's through a door—a revolving door that shuffles former federal employees into jobs as lobbyists, consultants and strategists just as the door pulls former hired guns into government careers. While members of the executive branch, Congress and senior congressional staffers spin in and out of the private and public sectors, so too does privilege, power, access and, of course, money.

Whether they are a presidential appointee plucked from an elite position in corporate America to run a government commission or an outgoing member of Congress looking for a more lucrative job in the influence industry, OpenSecrets.org's Revolving Door database tracks anyone whose résumé includes positions of influence in both the private and public sectors. Government employees may have had the president’s ear or may have simply been the doorkeeper of the congressional cloakrooms. Influence-peddlers merely have to be in a position to influence government policy on someone else's behalf, commonly as a "hired gun" at a K Street firm, an executive of a professional trade association or as a vice president of government relations for a large company.

Use the search options below to discover which public relations firms have signed up former White House employees, which lobbyists have brought their interests with them to the powerful appropriations committees, which interests are employing former members of Congress to lobby on their behalf...and much more.

http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/