Meet the U.S. senator who's already negotiating his next job

Sen. Gary Peters’ term representing the good people of Michigan doesn’t end until January.

But the Democrat from Michigan, who’s been in the Senate since 2015, is already looking ahead to an employment opportunity with an institution located far away from both Capitol Hill and his home state.

From my new scoop in NOTUS:

A Senate ethics document reviewed by NOTUS indicates that Peters, a two-term Senate Democrat who isn’t seeking reelection this year, is negotiating employment with the University of Southern California.

The negotiations began on June 3, according to the ethics document, which Peters signed the same day.

I contacted Peters’ Senate office and the University of Southern California for more details.

One agreed to discuss the matter, to an extent:

Peters’ office confirmed that the senator “is having conversations about potential opportunities once he completes his Senate term.”

“He is following all Senate rules regarding future employment opportunities,” the office told NOTUS in a statement. “There are no additional details to share at this time.”

The other would not:

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Representatives for the University of Southern California did not respond to phone and email messages requesting comment.

So what is Peters attempting to line up?

From my article:

It’s unclear what kind of job Peters is seeking with the university or where he’d be located.

In addition to its main campus in Los Angeles, the University of South California has a “Capital Campus” in Washington, D.C., with a mission to “accelerate our influence and impact, promote and develop strong leaders, and forge critical partnerships to address the nation’s most pressing issues and opportunities.”

It also has a sizable government relations operation, which typically spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on federal-level lobbying efforts.

In the meantime, Peters must be careful. That’s because Senate ethics rules require senators to “avoid not only an actual conflict of interest, but also the appearance of a conflict between their duties to the Senate and the interests of the prospective employers with whom they are negotiating.”

Read my full story here.