Olympic Size White House Waiver

Olympic Size White House Waiver

Don Irvine  —   May 4, 2009
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The White House gets into the Chicago 2016 Olympics game by granting a special ethics waiver to senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.
From ABC News’ Jake Tapper

On Friday night, the White House posted on its website a special ethics waiver allowing senior adviser Valerie Jarrett to lead the White House’s efforts to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago.

Jarrett had previously served as Vice Chair of the non-profit entity “Chicago 2016.”

The waiver — which can be read HERE — was signed by Special Counsel to the President and Designated Agency Ethics Official Norm Eisen.

It states that: “After consultation with the Counsel to the President, I hereby waive the requirements of paragraph 2 of the Ethics Pledge of Ms. Valerie Jarrett with respect to her former relationship with Chicago 2016. I have determined that it is in the public interest to grant the waiver because Ms. Jarrett’s knowledge and expertise on the United States’ sole Olympic bid for 2016 make her an ideal person to lead Administration efforts in support of this bid. I understand that Ms. Jarrett will otherwise comply with the remainder of the pledge and with all preexisting government ethics rules.”

Eisen writes on the blog that although Chicago 2016 was not Jarrett’s “former employer” in traditional terms, President Obama’s original lobbyist rules also includes institutions on which appointees served as directors or officers.

In fact it was precisely Jarrett’s experience on Chicago 2016 that made her perfect to lead the White House efforts, the White House decided, since she “developed knowledge about the process that will make her a powerful advocate and liaison. Although Valerie previously volunteered with Chicago 2016, she has no continuing financial relationship with them. Since the Administration already plans on vigorously supporting the United States’ sole 2016 Olympic bid, we felt that letting Valerie lead our efforts was strongly in the public interest.”

The conundrum for the White House is that in instituting its semi-ban on lobbyists, often those with expertise on a subject have worked as lobbyists for, or directors of organizations devoted to that subject. (To be clear: Jarrett was not a lobbyist for Chicago 2016.)

I really don’t care of Jarrett spearheads an effort to bring the Olympics to Chicago, but I am curious to know how Chicago plans to cover the costs of hosting the games should they succeed.