当选总统时乔·拜登揭开面纱周二，他的国家安全团队出现了几次明显的缺席，包括一名被提名领导国防部的人。

米歇尔·弗卢努瓦(Michele Flournoy)是该职位的主要候选人，她在克林顿和奥巴马政府期间曾在五角大楼担任高级职务。她因与国防承包商和一家战略咨询公司的关系而受到进步人士和左倾活动人士的批评，该公司曾面临有关其客户的问题。

她不是唯一一个。拜登的几个内阁人选和白宫的初步聘用，以及他的过渡努力的成员，也受到审查因为他们在美国企业界的工作或游说历史。

围绕拜登政府组成的争论是民主党激进分子和当权派之间最早的热点之一，此前他们合作和协作选举拜登，拒绝唐纳德·特朗普总统连任。

比尔·克拉克/CQ-通过盖蒂图像公司点名，文件

在这张2019年3月13日的档案照片中，前国防部负责政策的副部长米歇尔·弗卢努瓦

“到目前为止，情况好坏参半，但为时过早，”自由派倡导团体旋转门项目的创始人兼主任杰夫·豪泽(Jeff Hauser)在谈到拜登的新政府时表示。

进步团体也提出了自己的观点建议列表在400多名政府任命的高级官员中，不包括有公司或游说历史的个人。

美国广播公司新闻部周三联系了拜登过渡团队征求意见，但没有收到对问题的回应。

拜登政府

史蒂夫·里奇蒂(Steve Ricchetti)是拜登的长期助手，将在白宫担任顾问。他曾是一名游说者，在克林顿和奥巴马的白宫任职期间，他为医疗保健和制药公司工作了12年。

拜登提名民主党众议员塞德里克·里士满。，高级顾问兼公众参与办公室主任。据响应政治中心(Center for Responsive Politics)称，由年轻气候活动家组成的领导小组日出运动(Sunrise Motion)称之为“背叛”，指出里士满与能源行业的关系，能源行业为他的国会竞选贡献了数万美元。

“这是一个错误，也是对那些让当选总统拜登获胜成为可能的年轻人的侮辱。当选总统拜登向我们的运动保证，他理解这场危机的紧迫性;现在，是他行动起来的时候了，”该组织的执行董事瓦尔什尼·普拉卡什在一份声明中说。

而拜登预计将提名前美联储主席珍妮特·耶伦他提名的财政部长他还没有填补他的经济团队的其他成员，包括领导白宫预算办公室和国家经济委员会的关键职位。

卡罗琳·卡斯特/美联社

当选总统乔·拜登在曲剧院聆听他的国务卿候选人托尼·布林肯的演讲

周一，拜登宣布选择安东尼·布林肯(Antony Blinken)为国务卿提名人，安东尼·布林肯是他在参议院任职以来的另一位亲密顾问。

布林肯和弗卢努瓦一起创建了韦斯特克顾问公司在离开奥巴马政府后，拜登2020年竞选之前，一家“战略咨询公司”没有披露其客户。

良好的政府倡导者对该组织的结构提出了质疑，与游说商店不同，该组织不必在政府注册，他们预计Blinken与该公司的合作将是他确认听证会上的一个争论点。

政府监督项目的曼迪·史密斯伯格(Mandy Smithberger)告诉美国广播公司新闻，“重要的是要澄清这项工作是什么，以及其中是否有任何工作与他们的公共服务工作相冲突。”

弗卢努瓦的作品博斯艾伦汉密尔顿如果拜登提名，与五角大楼签约的咨询公司花旗集团(Citigroup)也可能成为国会山的一个路障。著名的进步议员已经呼吁拜登选择一名与国防承包商没有关系的五角大楼官员。

过渡工作

根据美国广播公司(ABC News)对联邦游说记录的分析，拜登的500人过渡团队从周一晚上开始与政府机构沟通，以促进权力移交，其中包括至少40名现任和前任注册游说者。

他们中的一些人是各种工会、环境组织或其他非营利民间组织的代表，而其他一些人则代表企业和商业利益进行游说，如制药公司或能源集团。

旋转门项目主任豪泽(Hauser)一直呼吁拜登的团队避免同时招募说客和他所说的“影子说客”，即在企业工作以影响政策，但不符合正式注册为说客的门槛的人。

他提到了杰西卡·赫兹(Jessica Hertz)，一位从事监管问题工作的Facebook高级律师，现在担任拜登过渡时期的总法律顾问，以及管理和预算办公室机构审查小组的几名成员，他们曾为Lyft、亚马逊、AirBnb和WestExec Advisors工作。

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游说者，包括任何在过去一年内注册的人，必须得到过渡法律团队的批准。如果团队成员在过去一年中代表任何外国政府或政党或为其提供咨询，则必须获得批准，并且在过渡后的一年内不得与任何外国政党或政府合作。

在过去的四年里，特朗普因在承诺“排空华盛顿的沼泽”后藐视自己的道德规则而受到抨击。

在上任的第一周，特朗普发布了一项行政命令，要求所有政府任命的人签署一项道德承诺，即他们不会参与任何与前雇主或前客户有关的事务，也不会游说他们在离开政府后工作了五年的机构，这是巴拉克·奥巴马总统在2008年制定的一套更严格的规则。

但在上任的头两个月，特朗普政府发布了至少16项道德豁免，允许工作人员在白宫工作，同时遵守道德规则——据报道超过五次这个数字是在奥巴马政府执政的前四个月批准的。多年来，其他几个特朗普政府的前成员被发现游说或代表他们承诺至少五年内不会代表的私人利益。

虽然拜登政府的道德规则要到明年1月就职时才会公布，但豪泽和其他透明度倡导者希望看到指导方针到位，既能防止注册游说者在政府中工作，又能提供更明确的指导方针，限制影子游说者在政府内外的循环。

“重建得更好的一部分是有一个行为道德的政府，”史密斯伯格说。“如果本届政府无视这些规则，我认为他们没有履行对美国人民的承诺。”

Progressives worry about lobbying, corporate ties in Biden administration

When President-electJoe Bidenunveiledhis national security team on Tuesday, there were several noticeable absences, including a nominee to lead the Department of Defense.

Michele Flournoy, a leading candidate for the role who served in senior posts at the Pentagon during the Clinton and Obama administrations, has faced criticism from progressives and left-leaning activists for her ties to defense contractors and a strategic advisory firm that has faced questions about its clients.

She's not the only one. Several of Biden's Cabinet selections and initial White House hires, along with members of his transition efforts, have alsocome under scrutinyfor their work in corporate America or lobbying history.

The wrangling over the composition of Biden's administration is one of the earliest flashpoints between the activist and establishment wings of the Democratic Party after their cooperation and collaboration to elect Biden and deny President Donald Trump a second term.

"It's a mixed bag so far, but it's extremely early," Jeff Hauser, the founder and director of the Revolving Door Project, a liberal advocacy group, said of Biden's incoming administration.

Progressive groups have also put forward their ownsuggested listof 400-plus senior administration appointees, a group that doesn't include individuals with corporate or lobbying histories.

ABC News reached out to the Biden transition team for comment Wednesday, but did not receive a response to questions.

The Biden administration

Steve Ricchetti, a longtime Biden aide who will serve as counselor in the White House, is a former lobbyist who spent a dozen years working for health care and pharmaceutical companies in between stints in the Clinton and Obama White Houses.

Biden named Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement. It's a move the Sunrise Movement, a leading group of young climate activists, called a "betrayal," pointing to Richmond's ties to the energy industry, which has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to his congressional campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

"That's a mistake and it's an affront to young people who made President-Elect Biden's victory possible. President-Elect Biden assured our movement he understands the urgency of this crisis; now, it's time for him to act like it," Varshini Prakash, the group's executive director, said in a statement.

While Biden is expected to name former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellenhis nominee for treasury secretary-- a pick praised by prominent Democrats across the party spectrum -- he has yet to fill out the rest of his economic team -- including critical positions leading the White House budget office and the National Economic Council.

On Monday, Biden announced his selection of Antony Blinken, another close adviser since his time in the Senate, as nominee for secretary of state.

Blinken, together with Flournoy, foundedWestExec Advisors, a "strategic advisory firm" that doesn't disclose its clients, after leaving the Obama administration and ahead of Biden's 2020 campaign.

Good government advocates who have raised questions about the structure of the organization -- which, unlike lobbying shops, does not have to register with the government -- expect Blinken's work with the firm to be a point of contention in his confirmation hearings.

"It's important to get clarification on what the work was and if any of it would be in conflict with what their work is going to be in public service," Mandy Smithberger of the Project on Government Oversight told ABC News.

Flournoy's work forBooz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm that contracts with the Pentagon, could also be a roadblock on Capitol Hill, should she be nominated by Biden. Prominent progressive lawmakers have already called on Biden to select a Pentagon chief without ties to defense contractors.

The transition effort

Biden's 500-person transition team, which began communicating with government agencies to facilitate the transfer of power as of Monday evening, includes at least 40 people who are current and former registered lobbyists, according to an ABC News' analysis of federal lobbying records.

Several of them are representatives of various labor unions, environmental groups or other nonprofit civic organizations, while some others have lobbied on behalf of corporate and business interests, like pharmaceutical companies or energy groups.

Hauser, the director of the Revolving Door Project, has been calling on Biden's team to avoid enlisting both lobbyists and what he refers to as "shadow lobbyists," or people who work in corporate jobs to influence policy, but don't meet the threshold to formally register as lobbyists.

He pointed to Jessica Hertz, a senior Facebook attorney who worked on regulatory issues, who now serves as the Biden transition's general counsel, along with several members of the agency review team for the Office of Management and Budget who have worked for Lyft, Amazon, AirBnb and WestExec Advisors.

Lobbyists, including any who have registered within the past year -- must be approved by the transition's legal team. Members of the team must also seek approval if they have represented or advised any foreign governments or political parties within the past year -- and are prohibited from working with any foreign parties or governments for an additional year after the transition.

Over the last four years, Trump has come under fire for flouting his own ethics rule after having promised to "drain the swamp" in Washington.

During his first week in office, Trump issued an executive order requiring all administration appointees to sign an ethics pledge that they will not participate in any matter related to their former employer or former clients, and to not lobby the agencies that they had worked in for five years after leaving the government, a stricter set of rules put in place by President Barack Obama in 2008.

But within the first two months of taking office, the Trump administration issued at least 16 ethics waivers to allow staff members to work in the White House while going around the ethics rules -- reportedlymore than five timesthe number granted in the first four months of the Obama administration. And over the years,several otherformer members of the Trump administration have been found lobbying or representing private interests that they pledged not to represent for at least five years.

While the Biden administration's ethics rules won't be released until January, when he takes office, Hauser and other transparency advocates are hoping to see guidelines in place that both prevent registered lobbyists from working in the administration and provide clearer guidelines to limit the cycling of shadow lobbyists in and out of the administration.

"Part of building back better is having a government that is ethical in its conduct," Smithberger said. "If this administration skirts these rules, I don't think that they are fulfilling their promise to the American people."