Office of Government Ethics – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

After this first round notice and public comment period, OGE plans to submit an unmodified OGE Form 450 Executive Branch Confidential Financial Disclosure Report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval of a three-year extension under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35).

The Office of Government Ethics is issuing this final rule to amend the regulation that describes financial interests that are exempt from the prohibition in 18 U.S.C. 208(a). These final rule amendments would revise the existing regulatory exemptions by: Creating a new exemption that permits Government employees to participate in particular matters affecting the financial interests of nonprofit organizations in which they serve in an official capacity as officer, director or trustee, notwithstanding the employees' imputed financial interest under 18 U.S.C. 208(a); and revising the existing exemption for interests in the holdings of sector mutual funds to clarify that it applies to interests in the holdings of sector unit investment trusts.

The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is submitting a request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for an expedited emergency clearance for the proposed OGE Form 201-A Ethics in Government Act access form under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35). OGE is requesting a temporary 180-day approval, effective November 9, 2012.

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) proposes to modify Routine Use (l) to OGE/GOVT-1, Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Reports and Other Name-Retrieved Ethics Program Records. This modification to Routine Use (l) is needed to implement provisions of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (Stock Act), Public Law 112-105 (2012), which amend the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, 5 U.S.C. App. This action is necessary to comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act to publish in the Federal Register notice of the existence and character of records maintained by the agency (5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(4)). OGE last published OGE/ GOVT-1 in 68 FR 3097-3109 (January 22, 2003), as corrected at 68 FR 24744 (May 8, 2003). An additional routine use was added to OGE/GOVT-1 in 76 FR 24489 (May 2, 2011).

On September 13, 2011, the Office of Government Ethics published in the Federal Register proposed amendments to the regulation governing standards of ethical conduct for executive branch employees of the Federal Government to impose limits on the use of gift exceptions by all employees to accept gifts from registered lobbyists and lobbying organizations, and to implement the lobbyist gift ban for appointees required to sign the Ethics Pledge prescribed by Executive Order 13490. The public comment period closes on November 14, 2011. OGE is extending the comment period to December 14, 2011.

The Office of Government Ethics proposes to amend the executive branch regulation regarding qualified trusts. The proposed amendments would make a few minor substantive changes, but would primarily put the regulation in a more logical order, make it more readable, and eliminate redundant provisions.

The Office of Government Ethics is updating its executive branch regulation on financial disclosure to reflect the retroactive statutory increase of the reporting thresholds for gifts and travel reimbursements. As a matter of regulatory policy, OGE is also raising the widely attended gatherings nonsponsor gifts exception dollar ceiling under the executive branchwide standards of ethical conduct regulation, but this change is not retroactive.

The Office of Government Ethics is issuing a proposed rule amendment that would permit Government employees to participate in particular matters affecting the financial interests of nonprofit organizations in which they serve in an official capacity, notwithstanding the employees' imputed financial interest. This document also proposes an amendment that would clarify that the existing exemptions for interests in the holdings of sector mutual funds also apply to interests in the holdings of sector unit investment trusts.

Notice is hereby given of the appointment of members of the updated OGE Senior Executive Service (SES) Performance Review Board.

After publication of this second round notice, OGE intends to submit an unmodified OGE Form 450 Executive Branch Confidential Financial Disclosure Report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval of a three-year extension under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35).

After publication of this second round notice, OGE plans to submit an unmodified OGE Form 201 Ethics Act Access Form to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval of a three-year extension under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35).

The Office of Government Ethics is publishing this second round notice and requesting comment on the twelve executive branch OGE model certificates and model documents for qualified trusts. OGE intends to submit these forms for extension of approval (up to three years) by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act. OGE is proposing no changes to these forms at this time. As in the past, OGE will notify filers of an update to the privacy information contained in the existing forms, and will post a notification thereof on its Web site.

The Office of Government Ethics is publishing this first round notice and seeking comment on the twelve executive branch OGE model certificates and model documents for qualified trusts. OGE intends to submit these forms for extension of approval for three years by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act. OGE is proposing no changes to these forms at this time. As in the past, OGE will notify filers of an update to the privacy information contained in the existing forms, and will post a notification thereof on its Web site.

OGE regulations have provided guidance concerning the post- employment conflict of interest restrictions of 18 U.S.C. 207 for Government employees terminating service between July 1, 1979 and December 31, 1990. As a result of amendments to section 207 that became effective January 1, 1991, and subsequently, employees terminating service in the executive branch or in an independent agency (or terminating service from certain high-level Government positions) since that date are subject to substantially revised post-employment restrictions. The purpose of these new regulations is to provide regulatory guidance explaining the scope and content of the statutory restrictions as they apply to employees terminating service on or after January 1, 1991. This final rule would expand the regulatory guidance OGE has previously published concerning the current version of section 207 and make minor modifications to those earlier rulemakings. It would also remove the old obsolete regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations.

The Office of Government Ethics is issuing this rule to revoke the designation of a departmental component and to designate two additional departmental components for purposes of the one-year post- employment conflict of interest restriction at 18 U.S.C. 207(c), to change the name of an existing departmental component, and to correct a clerical error in the name of another existing departmental component.

A revised notice is hereby given of the appointment of members of the updated OGE Senior Executive Service (SES) Performance Review Board.

The Office of Government Ethics is amending its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulation to indicate certain designations under Executive Order 13392 on FOIA improvement and to provide updated OGE contact numbers and an E-mail address for FOIA requests.

The Office of Government Ethics is publishing this first round notice and seeking comment on the twelve executive branch OGE model certificates and model documents for qualified trusts. OGE intends to submit these forms for extension of approval (up to two years) by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act. OGE is proposing no changes to these forms at this time. As in the past, OGE will notify filers of an update to the privacy information contained in the existing forms, and will post a notification thereof on its Web site.

The Office of Government Ethics is issuing this rule to provide notice of the exemption of certain senior employees' positions from the one-year post-employment restriction of 18 U.S.C. 207(c), to revoke certain existing department component designations, and to designate an additional component for purposes of that provision.

Notice is hereby given of the appointment of members of the updated OGE Senior Executive Service (SES) Performance Review Board.

The Office of Government Ethics is publishing this notice under the ``Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002,'' which is known as the No FEAR Act, to inform current employees, former employees, and applicants for OGE employment of the rights and protections available to them under Federal antidiscrimination, whistleblower protection and retaliation laws.

The Office of Government Ethics is amending the regulation governing standards of ethical conduct for executive branch employees of the Federal Government, to clarify the coverage of employees of State or local governments or other organizations detailed to an agency under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act.

The Office of Government Ethics is issuing a final rule amending the executive branch regulation regarding confidential financial disclosure. The amendments, once effective January 1, 2007, will change the dates of the annual reporting period; change the annual filing date; clarify the criteria for designating confidential filers; narrow the information required to be reported; create a separate ``report contents'' section for confidential reports; and highlight an existing provision regarding alternative financial conflict of interest review systems. In addition, the final rule includes new examples to illustrate these changes, and some technical amendments. This rule also makes one minor conforming amendment to the OGE branchwide financial interests regulation.

The Office of Government Ethics has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for review and one-year extension of approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of the current (unmodified) version of the OGE Form 450 Executive Branch Confidential Financial Disclosure Report form (hereafter, OGE Form 450). The current OGE Form 450 is to continue to be accompanied by agency notification to filers of the adjustment of the gifts/travel reimbursements reporting thresholds as explained below. The reason for this request is that paperwork clearance for the OGE Form 450 would otherwise expire under the PRA at the end of March 2006. In a first round paperwork notice published last summer in the Federal Register, OGE proposed a modified OGE Form 450. Because we received so many helpful comments in response to that notice, we have significantly redesigned the proposed new modified OGE Form 450 and recently separately published another first round paperwork notice in order to provide a further comment period. OGE's present notice and submission to OMB requesting one-year paperwork renewal of the current version of the OGE Form 450 will allow the existing confidential report form to continue to be used by new entrant filers for the rest of 2006 while OGE pursues finalization of the new form. (OGE plans to waive this fall's incumbent OGE Form 450 filing, with the next annual incumbent filer reports to be due in February 2007 utilizing the new modified form once it is cleared for use starting next year.)

Notice is hereby given of the appointment of members of the updated OGE Senior Executive Service (SES) Performance Review Board.