Sponsors (2)
The bill strengthens safeguards against domestic revolving‑door influence and foreign interference by lengthening cooling‑off periods and imposing lifetime bans on work for foreign‑controlled entities, at the cost of narrowing post‑government career options, raising employer and compliance costs, and creating some legal uncertainty for affected workers and organizations.
Taxpayers and the public: permanently barring covered former federal employees from lobbying or advising foreign-controlled entities reduces foreign influence risks and limits opportunities for foreign actors to exploit insider access.
Taxpayers and federal agencies: imposing a 5-year cooling-off ban on former senior officials lobbying their former agencies reduces revolving-door influence and helps protect impartial government decisionmaking.
Government operations: by preventing ex-officials from using insider knowledge to benefit foreign actors or their former agencies, the bill reduces conflicts of interest and helps preserve the integrity of government decisions.
Former senior officials: longer (5-year) and lifetime post‑employment bans reduce opportunities to work in advocacy or advisory roles, likely lowering career options and potential income for affected individuals.
Employers, including small businesses and nonprofits: restrictions limit access to experienced former officials as consultants or advocates (domestically and for foreign-related work), which could raise costs or reduce expertise available to industry.
Former employees and employers: the lifetime scope and language covering entities 'influenced' by foreign actors may be overly broad and create legal uncertainty about what work is permissible after leaving government.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Lengthens cooling‑off periods to five years for certain former senior executive officials and adds a lifetime ban on representing or advising foreign‑controlled entities.
Official title: To amend title 18, United States Code, to establish a 5-year post-employment ban on lobbying by former senior executive branch personnel and to prohibit such personnel from lobbying at any time on behalf of foreign governments or entities controlled by foreign governments, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 28, 2026 by Ashley Hinson · Last progress April 28, 2026
Extends post‑employment lobbying restrictions for certain former senior executive branch officials by lengthening existing cooling‑off periods from one or two years to five years. It also creates a new lifetime ban that bars those former officials from representing, aiding, or advising foreign entities or entities controlled or influenced by foreign entities after they leave covered positions. The changes apply only to individuals who leave covered positions on or after the law's enactment date and modify existing criminal conflict‑of‑interest statute 18 U.S.C. § 207 to impose longer cooling‑off periods and a permanent prohibition on work for foreign‑controlled entities for people who were subject to the expanded post‑employment restrictions.