William Lynn '76, a former defense lobbyist and President Barack Obama's pick for deputy secretary of Defense, has cleared a major hurdle on his path to Senate confirmation after receiving an ethics waiver from the Office of Management and Budget. The waiver allows Lynn to sidestep an executive order regarding employee ethics, according to a Friday press release from Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Lynn's nomination has been particularly contentious because of Obama's campaign pledge to reduce the influence of lobbyists in the capital. Obama signed the Executive Order on Ethics Commitments on Jan. 20, banning lobbyists from working in agencies they recently lobbied and prohibiting them from making decisions regarding their former employers for two years.
Lynn was a registered lobbyist for the defense firm Raytheon until July 2008.
In the absence of the waiver, Obama's executive order would have greatly restricted Lynn's authority as deputy Defense secretary, as Raytheon is a top defense contractor. Raytheon received $18.3 billion in U.S. government contracts in 2007, according to The Washington Post.
The Pentagon announced that Lynn, who has agreed to sell his stock in Raytheon, will not be required to recuse himself from decisions involving his former employer, but his actions will be subject to an ethics review for one year, according to the Associated Press.
Levin, however, said in the statement that Lynn will have to recuse himself from all decisions involving Raytheon for one year, unless he is specifically authorized to participate by an ethics official because of preexisting ethics rules.
The waiver immediately drew criticism from former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"I am disappointed in President Obama's decision to waive the 'revolving door' provisions of the executive order for Mr. Bill Lynn," McCain said in a statement. "While I applaud the president's action to implement new, more stringent ethical rules, I had hoped he would not find it necessary to waive them so soon."
These concerns should not prevent Lynn's confirmation from proceeding, McCain said in an interview on Fox News Sunday,
"I have asked to see which areas that Mr. Lynn will be recused from," McCain said. "But I think we need to probably move forward with his -- with his nomination."
Despite initial reservations, Levin said in the statement that he supports Lynn's nomination and confirmation by the Senate.
Various watchdog groups have argued that Lynn's connections with Raytheon will prevent him from performing his job fairly and effectively. The Project for Open Government sent an open letter to Levin and McCain, arguing that waiving ethics standards "would be a frontal violation of the revolving door reforms; yet confirming him without a waiver and requiring him to recuse himself from matters that affect Raytheon would make it impossible for him to effectively serve in his position."
Raytheon's participation in missile and air defense could present a conflict of interest. Raytheon is a supplier for the U.S. Navy's DDG-1000 destroyer project, which the Navy is currently planning to scale back, according to Bloomberg news service. Raytheon has fought to preserve its stake in the project, and as deputy secretary of Defense, Lynn would review such weapons programs and determine defense spending priorities.
Although the nomination and subsequent waiver are "certainly within Obama's prerogative," the political fighting that has resulted is a distraction to a smooth transition, government professor Linda Fowler said.
Fowler said she believes Obama was within his rights, but that Lynn's nomination has required Obama to spend significant political capital.
"Why would you give the Republicans this kind of ammunition the second week of [the] term?" she said. "What this does is give the Republicans the opportunity to dispel some of the glow of last week's 'lovefest' on the Mall."
Lynn most recently served as Raytheon's senior vice president of Government Operations and Strategy, according to the company's web site.
McCain, Levin, the Raytheon press office and the Obama transition team press office did not return requests for comment by press time.
