05
Meritocratic Civil Service & Regulatory Firewall
End revolving-door agency appointments.
Passage watch
Proposed · not introduced
01 · Pending
Introduced
A sponsor files the legislation and an official bill record is created.
02 · Pending
Committee review
The relevant committee considers the legislation.
03 · Pending
House passage
The House approves the bill or the legislative vehicle carrying its provisions.
04 · Pending
Senate passage
The Senate approves the bill or its legislative vehicle.
05 · Pending
Final text agreed
Both chambers approve the same final text.
06 · Pending
Becomes law
The legislation is signed into law or enacted over a veto.
Latest progress
This Student Plan proposal has not been introduced. No congressional passage milestones are complete.
Plan baseline · · Not an official Congress update
Official record · awaiting introduction
No verified Congress.gov record is linked. H.R. numbers in the blueprint are proposed labels, not confirmed bill identifiers. Official action updates are unavailable until an introduced bill is matched.
Congress.govWhat the bill does
- 1
Prohibit heads of the FDA, FAA, SEC, EPA, and FTC from having worked for the corporations they regulate.
- 2
Bar them from accepting employment with those corporations for 5 years after leaving.
- 3
Replace political fundraisers in agency leadership with career domain scientists, engineers, and prosecutors.
- 4
Impose a 90% federal windfall excise tax on severance, accelerated stock-option vesting, or deferred bonuses paid by regulated corporations to executives entering FDA, FAA, SEC, EPA, or FTC leadership.
- 5
Impose a 90% excise tax on compensation paid to former senior regulators by corporations they regulated within 5 years of leaving office, and strip 100% of corporate tax deductions for hiring former regulators during that window.
- 6
Seek salary and expense restrictions for regulatory agency heads or politically appointed commissioners employed by, lobbying for, or serving on boards of entities regulated by their agency within the preceding 5 years.
Why it matters
Serbia's demand for Departizacija — departisation of the public sector — challenged party loyalists and political fundraisers displacing qualified engineers, doctors, and scientists at agencies and safety boards. The lesson is that safety oversight loses credibility when regulators are beholden to the interests they oversee. The U.S. adaptation targets the corporate regulatory revolving door at the FDA, FAA, SEC, EPA, and FTC: appointments from regulated industries, corporate exit payouts, and lucrative jobs after public service can undermine independent judgment. Merit-based leadership and a financial firewall connect populist and progressive demands for trustworthy health, transport, market, environmental, and competition oversight.
The legislative blueprint
Phase 1 — House Floor Forcing Function (Spring 2029)
Rules Package Lock
Seek a pre-scheduled, standalone, unamendable roll-call vote under Section 5 ("Orders of Business") of the 121st Congress House Rules Package (H.Res. 5) before April 15, 2029.
Populist + Progressive Convergence (360+ Vote Target)
Bring together critics of pharmaceutical, tech, financial, transport, oil, and chemical industry capture around career scientists, safety engineers, and anti-corruption prosecutors rather than political fundraisers and corporate lobbyists. The blueprint targets 360+ House votes followed by Senate Rule XIV calendar placement. These are political targets, not recorded actions; calendar placement would not itself overcome a filibuster or guarantee enactment.
Phase 2 — Bypassing the 60-Vote Senate Filibuster (Two-Track Pincer)
Track A — 51-Vote Budget Reconciliation (Killing the Financial Incentive)
Use the proposed 25-vote House pivot to seek a 90% tax on regulated-corporation exit payouts when executives enter federal regulatory leadership and a 90% tax on compensation from corporations a former senior regulator oversaw during the 5-year post-office window. Strip 100% of corporate hiring deductions during that window. These proposed fiscal penalties aim to remove the financial incentive for the revolving door and remain subject to Byrd Rule and legal review.
Track B — Omnibus Appropriations & Holman Rule Salary Blockade
Using its proposed 3 blocking House Rules Committee seats and Holman Rule leverage, the 25-member Caucus seeks riders across Agriculture/FDA, THUD/FAA, FSGG/SEC/FTC, and Interior/EPA funding: "None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to pay the salary or expenses of any regulatory agency head or politically appointed commissioner who has been employed by, or served as a registered lobbyist or board member for, an entity regulated by that agency within the preceding five years." If the Senate strips the riders, the bloc proposes withholding the votes needed for a 218-vote House majority. This is a proposed funding strategy, not a current salary restriction.
Phase 3 — The 2031 Senate Confirmation Firewall & Field Pressure
Article II Confirmation Strategy (January 2031)
If the movement elects a 6-member Student List Senate Caucus in 2030, it proposes beginning in January 2031 to vote No on cloture and confirmation for nominees who worked as corporate lobbyists, political fundraisers, or regulated-industry executives within the preceding 5 years. The Senate's advice-and-consent role under Article II, Section 2 allows opposition without enacting a new law, but six Senators cannot unilaterally guarantee a blockade: the strategy requires a pivotal vote position or support from additional Senators. It would not itself establish a permanent statutory firewall.
5+5 Bipartisan Subpoena Audits
For suspicious decisions favoring a regulated corporation, the blueprint calls for the proposed 5-majority + 5-minority House Oversight subpoena trigger to obtain communications between agency leaders and former or prospective corporate employers. Union whistleblowers and university domain scientists in Statewide Megaplenums would support scrutiny. This is a proposed accountability mechanism, not an existing exercised power or a finding of wrongdoing.