Revolving door
Definition
The recurring movement of people between government jobs, regulating or legislating on an industry, and private jobs, lobbying or working for that same industry. It runs both directions: officials leave for industry pay, and industry lobbyists are later appointed to regulate the industry they lobbied.
Why it matters
Officials who expect a future industry job have an incentive to regulate gently, and industry hires who become regulators bring the industry's assumptions and contacts into the agency. Both directions blur the line between public duty and private interest, and existing cooling-off rules only slow the movement rather than stop it.
Seen in the wild
The Campaign Legal Center identified at least 47 former lobbyists nominated for or serving as senior political appointees as of April 2026, including Kyle Kunkler, who lobbied the EPA for the American Soybean Association on the pesticide dicamba before being appointed as an EPA deputy assistant administrator, after which the agency reversed the policy he had lobbied against.12