Office of Government Ethics October 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is issuing a proposed rule to revise the component designations of two agencies for purposes of the one-year post-employment conflict of interest restriction for senior employees. Specifically, OGE is proposing to revoke two existing component designations and add five new component designations, based on the recommendations of the agencies concerned.

After this first round notice and public comment period, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) plans to submit a modified 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.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act) was enacted on April 4, 2012. The Act imposed additional financial disclosure requirements on individuals required to file public financial disclosure statements pursuant to the Ethics in Government Act. Pursuant to section 402(b) of the Ethics in Government Act, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is revising the regulations governing financial disclosure to incorporate the new reporting requirements imposed by the STOCK Act. As a part of the revision, OGE also is modernizing language, making changes to the confidential filing requirements, adding and updating examples, and conforming the language of the regulation more closely to that of the Ethics in Government Act. In addition, OGE is proposing an updated definition of ``widely diversified'' for Excepted Investment Fund purposes that brings the definition in line with the definition of ``diversified'' found in the exemptions to the conflicts of interest law governing personal financial interests.