Handbook·Money in politics

What is the revolving door in politics?

Explainer·Verified 2026-07-10

The answer

The revolving door is the movement of people between government jobs, such as member of Congress, congressional staffer, or regulator, and private-sector jobs at the industries those government roles oversee.¹ It runs both directions: officials leave government for industry, and industry professionals take government jobs regulating their former employers. Most people assume a waiting period stops this outright. Federal law does impose a cooling-off period, but it only blocks direct contact with former colleagues, not the underlying work.

How it actually works

The current cooling-off period is one year for former House members and two years for former Senators before they can personally lobby their old chamber, set by the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007.² During that window, former lawmakers are barred from directly contacting ex-colleagues to lobby them, but they can still advise clients on lobbying strategy, help run a campaign, and use relationships built over years in office.³ Public Citizen calls this shadow lobbying: work that functions like lobbying but avoids the legal definition that would require registering under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

The numbers show how common the path is. Public Citizen found that of members of the 115th Congress (2017-2019) who left office for jobs outside elected politics, 59 percent (26 of 44) went into lobbying firms, consulting firms, or trade and business groups working to influence federal policy.⁴ An earlier Public Citizen study found 43 percent of lawmakers who left office between 1998 and 2004 became registered lobbyists.⁵

The pattern extends to federal agencies. A 2013 Project On Government Oversight analysis found that between 2001 and 2010, 419 former SEC employees filed 1,949 disclosure statements declaring plans to contact the agency for a new employer, and former officials went on to work at 131 firms handling matters before the SEC.⁶ On defense, POGO's 2018 "Brass Parachutes" report found Lockheed Martin had hired at least 44 former senior Pentagon officials, with Raytheon and Northrop Grumman each hiring at least 24 and Boeing at least 23, out of a pool where roughly a quarter of all tracked Pentagon revolving-door moves went to the five largest contractors.⁷ In 2023, OpenSecrets found 517 of 708 registered lobbyists working for defense contractors had prior government or congressional staff experience.⁸ Examples span both parties: Republican Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Democratic Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin were both former Goldman Sachs chiefs, Obama's deputy defense secretary William Lynn had been a Raytheon lobbyist, and Trump's defense secretary James Mattis had sat on General Dynamics' board.

Who holds the power

Former officials retain relationships, security clearances, and technical knowledge that make them valuable to the industries they used to regulate or fund, regardless of which administration or party is in office.

Where you come in

Cooling-off periods and lobbying disclosure rules are set by statute, so Congress can lengthen them or close the shadow-lobbying loophole. A 2025 bipartisan Senate bill from Elizabeth Warren and Rick Scott proposing a lifetime lobbying ban on former members remains pending. Every registered lobbyist's employment history and client list is searchable through the same disclosure system covered in how lobbying actually works, so checking whether someone lobbying on a bill used to work for the office they're now lobbying takes minutes.

Guides: how to check who's lobbying your state legislature Glossary: revolving door

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