From Senate job to nuclear lobbyist — twice

Lyons, the NEI spokeswoman, agreed that the one-year restriction “in no way … affects Alex from providing behind-the-scenes assistance to others at NEI.” She added: “He’s our chief lobbyist” and “he will be” directing other lobbyists.

Lyons said Flint began his new job Feb. 24. She said she did not know Flint’s salary. His predecessor, John E. Kane, received $389,425 in pay and benefits in 2004, according to IRS records, far more than the maximum of about $155,000 a year that a Senate staff member can be paid.

At NEI, Flint will be representing nuclear interests under the auspices of an industry association that has more than 250 corporate members in 13 nations. Based in Washington, the institute has a staff of 132 and is governed by a board of 44 directors. Its expenses in 2004 were about $34 million, according to IRS forms.

Flint’s new job marks the second time he has gone from the halls of Congress to a lobbying post. The 39-year-old Florida native got his start working as a staff assistant for Domenici while still a student at the University of New Mexico. He later moved to Washington to become a legislative assistant for Domenici, who in 1996 named him majority staff clerk to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water. Four years later, Flint left to work for the lobbying firm of Johnston and Associates, whose clients then included NEI and many other nuclear industry interests.

In 2001, according to Senate records, Flint set up his own consulting firm and in 2002 garnered more than $400,000 in fees from Xcel Energy, Exelon Corp, Cogema Inc. and CH2M Hill, all big players in the nuclear power industry. He also registered himself to lobby for NEI in 2002, receiving less than $10,000, according to Senate records.

In 2003, Domenici again hired his young protégé, this time for the Energy and Natural Resources post, a role in which Flint commanded a staff of 30 and became “one of Washington’s preeminent nuclear policy experts,” according to the NEI.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was a key focus of the committee’s work in Flint’s tenure as staff director. Its provisions, which became law when signed by President Bush last August, were labeled “The Best Energy Bill Corporations Could Buy” by Public Citizen and delighted the nuclear industry. Among them:

• $3 billion in research subsidies.
• More than $3 billion in construction subsidies for new nuclear power plants.
• Nearly $6 billion in operating tax credits.
• More than $1 billion in subsidies to decommission old plants.
• A 20-year extension of liability caps for accidents at nuclear plants.
• Federal loan guarantees for the construction of new power plants.

Examples of federal lawmakers and their staff members working on legislation that benefits an industry and then taking a job soon after with that very industry have become very common since 1998 when lobbyist record-keeping rules were enacted, says Craig Holman of Public Citizen.

“Serving as a congressional staff member now is viewed more often as a stepping stone to riches than it is doing public service,” said Holman, citing statistics that he says indicate 42 percent of former House members and 50 percent of ex-senators wind up lobbying “for the same businesses that appeared before them while they were in public office.”

And Holman said many Capitol Hill staffers plot their careers specifically with an eye to making the best contacts for post-government lobbying jobs in which they routinely earn more than $300,000 a year.

“That’s what most of them do,” Holman said. “They leave public service and they become very wealthy. … This is wrong. The revolving door is a fountain for corruption. It is absolutely wrong.”

Holman and PIRG’s Kalman say perhaps the most egregious example of that is former Rep. Billy Tauzin's role in shepherding the Medicare prescription bill through Congress, then going to work for the companies that benefited from it.

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