IEC Journal

Insider Trading Bill

The "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act," H.R. 682, would prohibit members and employees of Congress, as well as other Federal employees from trading based upon material nonpublic information.

Improper Disclosure of Information

Mark Stone drew our attention to President Obama's 27 May 09 six page memo entitled “Classified Information and Controlled Unclassified Information.” 

As Mark noted, this is significant because releasing government information contrary to law or regulation raises standard of conduct issues.  See 41 USC 423(a), 18 USC 1905, 5 CFR 2635.703, and 5 CFR 2635.902(z).

"Social Web" Implicates Ethical Issues

A NextGov article discusses GSA's move to enable agencies to use modern social media tools and concludes:

The Federal Web Managers Council is working with agencies to craft policies for using social media tools, but the rules aren't likely to be much different from existing guidelines on releasing information publicly, according to Campbell. "I think the same rules and ethics apply," she said. "If you're on Twitter, you shouldn't be posting confidential information, just as you wouldn't if speaking at a conference."

GSA general counsel Seth Greenfield said any new social media policies would only complement existing ethical standards and regular use policies being applied to the use of IT.

Ethics Link from Agency Home Page?

The Inspector General Reform Act of 2008 mandates favorable treatment of Inspector General websites:

§ 8L. Information on websites of offices of Inspectors General

(a) Direct links to Inspectors General offices.--

(1) In general.--Each agency shall establish and maintain on the homepage of the website of that agency, a direct link to the website of the Office of the Inspector General of that agency.

(2) Accessibility.--The direct link under paragraph (1) shall be obvious and facilitate accessibility to the website of the Office of the Inspector General.

Does your agency give the same prominence to your ethics program, as does the Department of Transportation?

Sixth Circuit Interprets Bribery Statue

 The May issue of The Informer, the publication of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center's Legal Division, highlights a recent bribery case, U.S. v. Abbey, 560 F.3d 513 (6th Cir. 2009). The Sixth Circuit summarized its holding as follows:

Abbey’s appeal boils down to a single assertion: that the government, to sustain a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 666 or the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951, must prove a direct link between a specific gift given to a public official and an explicit promise by that official to perform a specific, identifiable official act in return. Though Abbey is correct that the government did not prove such a link at trial and that the jury instructions did not so instruct, we nevertheless reject his argument because neither statute contains such a heightened requirement. We thus affirm Abbey’s convictions and sentence.

Failure to Pay Taxes

Federal employee failure to pay taxes is a standards of conduct violation with major public relations implications. This report from Washington-area radio station WTOP is typical:

The Internal Revenue Service is trying to collect billions of dollars in unpaid taxes from nearly half a million federal employees. According to IRS records, 171,549 current federal workers did not voluntarily pay their federal income taxes in 2007. The same is true for 37,752 active duty military and nearly 200,000 retired civilian and military personnel.

Documents obtained by WTOP through the Freedom of Information Act show 449,531 federal employees and retirees did not pay their taxes for a total of $3,586,784,725 in taxes owed last year.

Each year the IRS tracks the voluntary compliance rate of all federal workers and retirees. The percentage of employees and retirees who are delinquent has gone up and down over the past five years, but the amount unpaid has increased each year topping $3.5 billion for the first time in 2007.

March Madness Soon Upon Us

Under the ounce of prevention theory, a timely reminder of the rules against gambling in federal offices could be in order.

The Federal Register provision on gambling provides:

"What is the policy concerning gambling?"

(a) Except for the vending or exchange of chances by licensed blind operators of vending facilities for any lottery set forth in a State law and authorized by section 2(a)(5) of the Randolph-Sheppard Act (20 U.S.C. 107 et seq. ), all persons entering in or on Federal property are prohibited from—

(1) Participating in games for money or other personal property;
(2) Operating gambling devices;
(3) Conducting a lottery or pool; or
(4) Selling or purchasing numbers tickets.

(b) This provision is not intended to prohibit prize drawings for personal property at otherwise permitted functions on Federal property, provided that the game or drawing does not constitute gambling per se. Gambling per se means a game of chance where the participant risks something of value for the chance to gain or win a prize.

Edited March 5 to correct typos.

IEC 2009 Survey

IEC would like to gauge how well it is responding to the Government Ethics community in terms of providing timely and relevant presentations as well as useful resources.  To accomplish this goal, we would appreciate your help.  Please complete the attached survey and returning it to iec.jobs@yahoo.com.  The survey will be available for approximately a month.  We appreciate your participation.

Download 2009 Survey (Word) or Download 2009 Survey (PDF)

(If you completed a survey at the February IEC meeting please disregard this message)

Race-Motivated Threats Punished

A former American career diplomat has been sentenced for a civil rights violation for sending threatening voice messages and e-mails, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 245(b)(2)(C) (using threats to intimidate and interfere with employment based on race and religion) and 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) (transmitting threats in interstate commerce).  He received two concurrent sentences of 12 months of imprisonment followed by 3 years of post-release supervision, 100 hours of community service and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

UCLA Professor Eugene Volokh analyzed the constitutionality of criminalizing such communications at the time of the indictment, emphasizing the fact that these communications were directed toward inidividuals, not general expressions of hatred for members of a certain class.Thanks to Shaw, Bransford, Veilleux & Roth, P.C. for alerting us to the recent sentencing.

Prompt Reporting of PAS Official Departures

OGE recently implemented a new policy for prompt reporting of Presidentially Appointed, Senate Confirmed appointee departures:

As of July 7, 2008, agencies are required to notify OGE of a PAS official’s termination date via email at 278tracking@oge.gov. The notification should be made as soon as possible but no later than the day before the PAS official’s termination date.

The DAEOGRAM announcing OGE's reporting policy is available.