Government Ethics Office – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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.

The Office of Government Ethics proposes to amend the executive branch regulation regarding confidential financial disclosure. The proposed amendments would 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. The rule also would include new examples to illustrate these changes, a technical amendment to delete an obsolete provision, and minor conforming amendments.

The Office of Government Ethics has submitted the executive branch qualified trust model certificates and model trust documents to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and two-year extension of approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act. A total of twelve OGE model certificates and model documents for qualified trusts are involved. OGE is proposing no changes to these forms.

The Office of Government Ethics has submitted the Public Financial Disclosure Access Customer Service Survey to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and three-year extension of approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act. OGE proposed no changes to the survey form.

The Office of Government Ethics is conducting a study, pursuant to the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, to evaluate and recommend improvements to the public financial disclosure process for employees of the executive branch. This notice indicates the pendency of OGE's study and provides the public and agencies the opportunity to comment.