Ethics Order Affects Aide to Geithner

T.W. FARNAM

WASHINGTON -- The new chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was a top lobbyist for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. until last year, and will have to recuse himself from some government duties under new White House ethics rules.

The appointment of Mark Patterson runs into an executive order President Barack Obama signed to limit the ability of officials to move between industry and government. The order, part of a campaign promise to curb the influence business, allows lobbyists to join the administration as long as they don't work on the subjects they tried to influence for a period of two years.

Before Mr. Patterson left Goldman in April, he was vice president for government relations, and was registered to lobby Congress on legislation including energy tax credits and Indian gaming, according to disclosure forms filed with Congress. Mr. Patterson monitored other issues moving through Congress that Goldman never took a position on, including foreclosure-prevention measures and shareholder votes on executive compensation.

"Mr. Patterson has a long history of public service in the United States Senate. He brings significant expertise to the job of chief of staff, and has agreed to a far-reaching ethics pledge to remove any hint of a conflict of interest," said Treasury spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. The pledge, outlined in the executive order, requires him to recuse himself from topics he lobbied on.

Last week, the Obama administration issued a waiver of the rules for another high-level staffer, William Lynn, who was appointed to be the deputy secretary at the Department of Defense. Mr. Lynn, formerly a registered lobbyist for Raytheon Co., where he was the senior vice president of government operations, was exempted from the requirement to remove himself from dealings with his former company or the issues that he addressed.

Several recent appointees have lobbied for groups that are close allies of the new president, including Patrick Gaspard, the new White House political director, who was registered by the Service Employees International Union to work on passing an expansion of funding for children's health insurance. A White House spokesman said Mr. Gaspard will recuse himself from matters dealing with that legislation and that a waiver will be granted to another administration employee, Cecilia Munoz, the new director of intergovernmental affairs, who was a lobbyist for The National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy organization.

Mr. Obama's pick for U.S. trade representative, former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk, was registered to lobby at the state level but not with the federal government. In the past two years, he took in more than $1 million in lobbying revenue from financial and energy firms, according to documents filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. The executive order applies only to lobbyists at the federal level.

Other appointees have worked to sway government but never officially registered to lobby Congress themselves, including Tom Daschle, Mr. Obama's choice to lead Health and Human Services. The former senator served as an adviser to lobbying firm Alston and Bird LLP.