Bloomberg: Pentagon’s No. 2 Sets Up Alert System on His Ex-Employer Boeing
Patrick Shanahan, the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian, has set up an alert system to insulate himself from decisions affecting Boeing Co., where he rose to senior vice president during a 30-year career.
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“This is a more formal arrangement than some agencies do, which is nice to see,” Walter Shaub, the former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said in an interview. Shaub resigned in July and has been highly critical of the Trump administration’s approach to government ethics.
It makes sense for someone in Shanahan’s office, who’s familiar with major issues, to serve as screener, according to Shaub, who’s now senior director with the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington group that advocates for stronger campaign-finance disclosure laws.
But Mandy Smithberger, a director at the Project on Government Oversight, said that someone on Shanahan’s own staff “could fear retaliation for raising concerns.”
“This is one of the concerns about the revolving door, especially for such a major contractor -- these types of recusals are too thin to protect the public interest,” she said.