From the New York Times:

Lucrative Life in Revolving Door for Capitol Hill Staff Member and Lobbyist

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: June 10, 2006
WASHINGTON, June 9 — For months, Jeffrey S. Shockey has seemed to
exemplify the revolving door between K Street and Capitol Hill.

He left a job with the House Appropriations Committee in 1999 for a
partnership at a lobbying firm only to return to the committee again
at the beginning of last year. He disclosed at the time that the firm
gave him a parting payment of $600,000 while his wife, another former
staff member, started lobbying the committee for some of his former
clients.

But there was more. In newly filed financial disclosure forms, Mr.
Shockey reports that the $600,000 was the first installment of a total
of $1.96 million he received last year from his former firm, Copeland
Lowery Jacques Denton & White.

Lawyers for Mr. Shockey said in a conference call with reporters that
the firm was paying Mr. Shockey for the value of the partnership stake
he gave up. Under an agreement with Mr. Shockey, the firm waited to
see how much money the clients he signed paid the firm in 2005 to
determine the full payment.

The House ethics committee approved the arrangement in advance, the
lawyers said, and Mr. Shockey recuses himself from any official
business with his former clients or partners.

The report of the windfall, however, comes at an awkward time. Federal
prosecutors are investigating the ties between Representative Jerry
Lewis, Republican of California and chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee and Mr. Shockey's current boss, and Bill
Lowery, Mr. Shockey's former lobbying partner.

Federal officials briefed on the inquiry said that prosecutors were
looking into whether lawmakers traded financing allocations for
illicit payments from contractors and lobbyists and that Mr. Shockey's
dual roles put him under scrutiny, as well.

Mr. Shockey's current position is deputy staff director for the
Appropriations Committee. His duties focus on relations with the House
leaders and other committees, not pressing for the pet projects that
lobbyists often seek for clients. But the outcome of the final
appropriations bills often reflect collaboration and debate from many
staffs and the House leaders, so it is impossible to draw a firm
boundary around his role.

The delayed payment meant that Mr. Shockey continued to have an
interest in the firm's lobbying success during much of his first year
back at the committee. The final payment was made in August, based on
the first six months of the year.

Kenneth A. Gross, a government ethics lawyer, said paying Mr. Shockey
for his stake in advance could have led to a possible overpayment and
other image problems.

The disclosures also illuminated a sharp upturn in Mr. Shockey's
business around the time his longtime boss, Mr. Lewis, was chosen as
chairman of the Appropriations Committee at the beginning of 2005.

Lawyers for Mr. Shockey said a partner in the firm typically took home
the total amount that his clients paid, minus an 18 percent charge for
overhead. Mr. Shockey earned $1.53 million in 2004. According to the
buyout calculations, he could have earned about $3 million in 2005.

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