WASHINGTON – Following news yesterday that Brian Barnard, a senior advisor to Secretary Elaine Chao, left the Department of Transportation (DOT) to lobby for Uber, Restore Public Trust released the following statement:

“Another day, another staffer leaving Elaine Chao’s department to lobby on the very issues the Department of Transportation oversees,” said Lizzy Price, director of Restore Public Trust. “The transportation department’s cozy relationship with the transportation industry gives lobbyists unfair sway over an agency that should be worried about keeping the American public safe. Chao’s department should be concerned with public safety, not lining executives’ pockets with taxpayer dollars.”

Barnard is at least the third official to leave Chao’s department for a lobbying gig or join from one since mid-October. In recent weeks, former Deputy Assistant Secretary Of Transportation Anthony Bedell left the administration to join a lobbying firm and Chao tapped former lobbyist Mala Parker as deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration.

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