As of this week, nearly 250 former congressional employees can legally begin lobbying their former colleagues, the Sunlight Foundation's post-employment lobbying tracker reveals. Included in that list are 71 former members of Congress, some of whom already have secured berths at K Street influence shops even before they were legal to lobby. (House members must wait one year after leaving office before embarking on a lobbying career; for former senators, the cooling-off period is two years.)