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Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., released a report today outlining her office’s findings on the practice of defense contractor’s hiring former government employees. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — A new report by a US senator has provided hard numbers on the number of former government officials and military personnel who go through the “revolving door” to work for the defense industry.

“This analysis identified 672 cases in 2022 in which the top 20 defense contractors had former government officials, military officers, members of Congress, and senior legislative staff,” according to the report released today by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “In 91 percent of these cases, the individuals that went through the revolving door became registered lobbyists for big defense contractors.”

Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, published the report on the same day she is scheduled to chair a congressional hearing about the issues associated with retired military officers working for foreign governments as well as executive branch officials owning stocks in companies impacted by their work as policymakers.

“When government officials cash in on their public service by lobbying, advising, or serving as board members and executives for the companies they used to regulate, it undermines public officials’ integrity and casts doubt on the fairness of government contracting,” Warren wrote in the report. “This problem is especially concerning and pronounced in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the United States’ defense industry.”

Defense contractors hiring former military officers is a common, legal practice — and not necessarily a secret one. Companies will frequently tout significant new hires of recently retired 3- and 4-star general officers in public statements. The issue is one that Warren has pressed Pentagon officials on for several years.

Warren’s report says her staff reviewed data through the “Open Secrets Revolving Door database, corporate websites, lobbying disclosures and US Senate confirmation lists” to identify relevant individuals, ranging from former congressional staffers to the most senior uniformed brass inside the Pentagon.

Notably, the report does not indicate any of these individuals broke the law, but it does state its findings are not exhaustive.

“As one Politico investigation found, there is ‘an entire class of professional influencers who operate in the shadows’ as ‘policy advisers, strategic consultants, trade association chiefs, corporate government relations executives, [and] affiliates of agenda-driven research institutes,’” according to Warren’s report. “And, many individuals who do engage in lobbying activities aren’t required to register as lobbyists, as another Politico investigation revealed.”