Job transitions are always tough, especially when an employee has concurrent obligations to his old and new employee. That pressure turned out to be too much for the outgoing legislative director for Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
The Washington Examiner first reported that Kurt Kovarik was cashing out for a biodiesel lobbying shop on K Street, a little more than a month after helping defeat an effort to reduce mandated levels of biodiesel usage. Now Politico reports that Kovarik continued working on that project — as a government employee — even after accepting a new gig with the National Biodiesel Board.
Kovarik accepted the new job sometime in December, Politico reports, with a January 2018 start date. While transitioning from legislative aide to full-time lobbyist, he fought to protect the Renewable Fuels Standard. Coincidently, that’s a priority of his future employer. Federal Election Commission records show that the National Biodiesel Board has spent more than $1.2 million lobbying on the issue.
By hiring Kovarik, they got an inside man. And they get their money’s worth. Just last week, Kovarik — as a Senate staffer — participated in a phone call with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prepare for a meeting with the White House concerning the mandate. More than unseemly, it could be a violation of Senate ethics rules.
“It would appear that his conduct at a minimum created the appearance of conflict of interest and I think actually created a substantive conflict of interest,” Kenyen Brown, a former senior counsel for the Senate Ethics Committee, told Politico.
No one can begrudge a man for working hard. But everyone should begrudge Kovarik and Grassley’s office for this apparent ethical lapse.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the date the staffer accepted the industry position. He accepted the job in December, not September. Also the staffer participated in a call preparing for a meeting with the White House. He did not call the White House.
