Nominee pledges to distance himself further from Raytheon

SEEKS ETHICS WAIVER Senator Grassley has said that William Lynn (left) presided over decisions that contributed to wasteful Pentagon spending.

WASHINGTON - If he gains Senate approval to be the second-ranking Pentagon official, Raytheon executive and former lobbyist William J. Lynn III pledged yesterday not to participate in any decisions for up to a year that involve the weapons programs he lobbied for on behalf of the Waltham-based defense giant, according to letters the White House and Lynn sent to Capitol Hill yesterday.

Lynn has become one of President Obama's most scrutinized nominees because he needed a special ethics waiver to be eligible to be deputy secretary of defense, the post responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the Department of Defense. The administration's new ethics guidelines bar former lobbyists from having jurisdiction over industries they represented in the previous two years.

Lawmakers have questioned the ability of Lynn, who was a registered lobbyist until July 2008, to remain impartial in decisions that affect his former employer, which receives billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts each year. To address those concerns, Lynn previously said he will seek special authorization from Pentagon lawyers before taking part in decisions that might affect Raytheon's bottom line, and he agreed to sell all his company stock within 90 days.

But yesterday he went a step further, vowing that "as an additional precaution" he will not involve himself for at least a year with the half-dozen weapons programs - including a new warship, missiles, and satellites - that he advocated during his stint as a Raytheon lobbyist from 2002 to 2008.

Lynn is especially trying to satisfy Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who remains the most vocal critic of his nomination. Lynn's new effort to address the ethics concerns was included in a written response to questions posed by Grassley.

Lynn has won wide backing from many in defense who believe the 54-year-old, who previously served in several top Pentagon posts and as an aide to Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, is uniquely suited to take on the massive agency's myriad management challenges.

Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, called Lynn "a talented and badly needed public servant." "High-level experience in managing Pentagon budgetary, finance, and procurement functions is extremely rare, and it was particularly important to Mr. Lynn's selection," Orszag wrote to Grassley yesterday.

But Grassley still appeared to have concerns - both with Lynn's ties to Raytheon and his past performance as the Pentagon's top budget official in the 1990s. Grassley has maintained that Lynn presided over a series of financial decisions that contributed to wasteful spending and shoddy accounting procedures.

Yesterday, Lynn assured Grassley that getting a handle on the Pentagon's finances would be one of his top priorities.

"The department needs stronger management information systems," Lynn wrote in answers to a series of written questions posed by Grassley. "I can assure you that, if confirmed, I will be committed to improving financial information and business intelligence needed for sound decision making."

Still, Grassley's office indicated yesterday that he will continue to raise questions about the choice of Lynn as the Senate takes up his nomination. Senators have the prerogative of placing a hold on a nomination, delaying it indefinitely.

Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.