Extend the Lobbying Cool-Off Period

What it does

Current law requires former House members to wait one year and former senators two years before lobbying their colleagues. This reform would extend that wait to at least five years for members of Congress and senior congressional staff.

The Public Service Integrity Act (House) and Cleaning up Washington Act (Senate) carried this proposal in earlier Congresses. Newer bills — the Close the Revolving Door Act and the BLAST Act — propose a permanent lifetime ban instead, which goes further than the public has endorsed.

How members will be scored

Recorded as supporting if they are a cosponsor of any pending bill that extends the cool-off period to five or more years, or of a lifetime ban that supersedes it.