Former financial lobbyist now in Treasury

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- A former Goldman Sachs lobbyist has been tapped as a top aide to U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

On the same day he announced rules aimed at reducing the role of lobbyists in agency decisions, Geithner named Mark Patterson as his chief of staff at the agency overseeing the federal government's $700 billion bailout initiative, from which Goldman Sachs received $10 billion, USA Today reported.

Patterson "brings significant expertise to the job," Treasury spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said.

Patterson, who left the investment bank in April, signed the administration's ethics pledge that requires him to recuse himself from issues that "directly and substantially" relate to his former employer, Cutter said.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, said Obama seemed to be backing away from his ethics rules barring lobbyists from working on the issues they lobbied about during the previous two years.

"It makes it appear that they are saying one thing and doing another," she said.

On Friday, the White House waived the rules for William Lynn, a defense contractor lobbyist in 2008 who was appointed as a deputy secretary at the Pentagon.

A USA Today review of Obama appointments indicates 21 have been registered as federal lobbyists although most have not lobbied within the past two years. White House aide Cecilia Munoz lobbied last year for the National Council of La Raza and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack lobbied in 2007 for a national teachers union, the review showed.