The Joint Ethics Regulation is the Department of Defense’s single ethics rulebook, binding every civilian employee and every service member regardless of branch, rank, or duty station. Issued under DoD Directive 5500.07 and maintained by the DoD Standards of Conduct Office, it pulls together federal criminal statutes, Office of Government Ethics regulations, and DoD-specific policies into one framework.1Department of Defense. DoD Directive 5500.07 – Ethics and Standards of Conduct No DoD component can loosen, tighten, or rewrite it without approval from the General Counsel’s office, so the rules read the same at a stateside base as they do at a combatant command overseas.
The sections below cover the parts of the regulation that most often trip people up: conflicts of interest, gifts, misuse of position, political activity, financial disclosure, and what happens after you leave.
Financial Conflicts of Interest
Federal criminal law, 18 U.S.C. § 208, bars you from participating personally and substantially in any government matter where you, your spouse, your minor child, or your general partner has a financial stake.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 208 – Acts Affecting a Personal Financial Interest A conflict can look like owning stock in a contractor whose bid you’re evaluating, holding property near a project your office is scoping, or having a spouse working for a company chasing a DoD award. When the conflict arises, you step off the matter.
Penalties for ignoring one are heavy: up to one year in prison for a non-willful violation, up to five years for a willful one, and civil penalties as high as $50,000 per violation or the amount of compensation received, whichever is greater.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 216 – Penalties and Injunctions
Small Holdings Exemption
Not every share of stock forces you off a project. If the affected company is a direct party to the matter, the combined publicly traded holdings of you, your spouse, and minor children can total up to $15,000 before disqualification kicks in.4eCFR. 5 CFR 2640.202 – Exemptions for Interests in Securities If the company is merely affected rather than a party, the ceiling is $25,000 across all affected entities. These figures apply to publicly traded securities, long-term federal government securities, and municipal bonds.
Outside Employment
If you file a financial disclosure report, you need written supervisor approval before accepting outside work with a prohibited source, meaning a company that does business with or is regulated by your agency.5Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office. Outside Activities Individual commands can add their own approval requirements, so check with an ethics counselor even if you don’t file a disclosure. Paid or unpaid doesn’t matter. Board seats, consulting, part-time jobs — all of it counts.
Gifts From Outside Sources
DoD personnel may not solicit or accept gifts from prohibited sources, and may not accept gifts given because of their official position.6eCFR. 5 CFR Part 2635 Subpart B – Gifts From Outside Sources A prohibited source is anyone doing business or seeking to do business with your agency, seeking official action from it, regulated by it, or with interests substantially affected by how you do your job.7eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.203 – Definitions Defense contractors are the obvious case; trade associations, lobbying firms, and organizations made up mostly of those groups are covered too.
A gift is anything with monetary value: meals, travel, lodging, entertainment, tickets, loans, favors. A few things don’t count. Modest snacks like coffee and donuts served outside of a meal, greeting cards, and prizes from contests open to the general public sit outside the definition.
The most commonly used exception is the $20 rule. You may accept an unsolicited gift worth $20 or less per occasion, provided total gifts from that source stay under $50 in a calendar year. Even within those limits, decline anything a reasonable person would see as compromising your judgment. An adjustor approving contractor invoices who accepts a $15 lunch from that contractor every week meets the math but fails the smell test.
Gifts Between DoD Personnel
Different rules govern gifts up and down the chain of command. As a default, subordinates don’t give gifts to superiors and superiors don’t accept them from subordinates.
Two exceptions carve out room. On routine gift-giving occasions like holidays or birthdays, non-cash items worth $10 or less per occasion are allowed, along with food and refreshments to be shared in the office.8eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.304 – Exceptions Cash on these occasions is never acceptable, in any amount.
Special, infrequent occasions loosen the rules further. Marriage, birth or adoption of a child, serious illness, and events ending the reporting relationship (retirement, resignation, transfer) allow a gift “appropriate to the occasion” without a fixed dollar cap. Employees may pool voluntary contributions of nominal amounts for a group gift on these occasions. The DoD Standards of Conduct Office recommends keeping the suggested contribution at $10 or less and making clear that anyone can give less or nothing.9Standards of Conduct Office. Guidance on Departure Gifts to Superiors Contractors and contractor employees are not included in the donating group.
Misuse of Position and Government Resources
Your title, your office, and the equipment on your desk belong to the government, and none of them can be turned to personal profit.10eCFR. 5 CFR Part 2635 Subpart G – Misuse of Position You may not lean on rank or authority to pressure a subordinate into providing any benefit to you. You may not use your title in a way that suggests the government endorses your private activities, side business, or political views. And you may not endorse any product, service, or company using your government position.
Personal references get a narrow carve-out: you can include your title when recommending someone you dealt with during federal service or someone applying for a federal job, as long as the recommendation rests on personal knowledge. Teaching, speaking, and writing on your own time similarly allow limited use of your title in the manner the regulations permit. The distance between “I work at DoD” and “DoD supports my view” is easy to close without noticing.
Political Activity
The Hatch Act limits federal employees’ political activity, and DoD layers additional restrictions on military members. Where you fit depends on your position.
Most DoD civilians are “less restricted.” On personal time, they may work on campaigns, attend rallies, display yard signs, and run for nonpartisan local office. They still may not use official authority to influence an election, solicit political contributions from subordinates, or run for partisan office.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 US Code 7323 – Political Activity Authorized; Prohibitions
“Further restricted” civilians cannot take an active part in partisan political management or campaigns at all. The category includes Presidential appointees confirmed by the Senate, non-career and career Senior Executive Service members, contract appeals board members, and all employees of the National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.12Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office. Political Activities
Active-duty military face the strictest rules. Service members may not campaign for a partisan candidate, engage in partisan fundraising, serve as an officer of a partisan club, or speak before a partisan gathering. They may hold and express personal opinions on political subjects, contribute money to campaigns, and attend political events as spectators when out of uniform. The controlling principle is avoiding any inference that DoD sponsors, approves, or endorses a candidate or cause.
Financial Disclosure Reports
Certain DoD personnel file financial disclosures so ethics officials can flag conflicts before they cause damage. Senior officials and Presidential appointees file the public OGE Form 278e. A much larger group whose duties involve contracting, procurement, grants, or other conflict-prone work files the confidential OGE Form 450.13U.S. Office of Government Ethics. OGE Form 278e Overview
Both forms ask for a full accounting: assets held for investment, brokerage accounts, real estate, retirement funds, and outside positions such as board memberships whether paid or unpaid. On the public 278e, filers report every source of earned income over $200 during the reporting period; the spouse threshold is $1,000.14Office of Management and Budget. Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report Instructions The 450 uses different thresholds aimed at surfacing conflict risks rather than tracking exact dollar amounts.
Annual OGE Form 450 reports are due to agency ethics officials by February 15 each year, with extensions up to 90 days available for good cause.15eCFR. 5 CFR 2634.903 – Confidential Filer Filing Deadlines Annual OGE Form 278e reports are due by May 15, with initial 45-day extensions available and a possible second 45-day extension after that.16U.S. Office of Government Ethics. 2026 Calendar of Important Ethics Dates
Missing the public disclosure deadline costs money. If your OGE Form 278e arrives more than 30 days past deadline (or after an approved extension expires), you owe a $200 late filing fee to the U.S. Treasury.17eCFR. 5 CFR 2634.704 – Late Filing Fee The 450 has no late fee, but chronic lateness can bring administrative consequences.
Post-Government Employment
Leaving DoD does not close out your ethics obligations. Federal law imposes three tiers of restrictions after you walk out, and they carry the same criminal and civil penalties as conflict-of-interest violations.
The permanent ban: you may never represent a private party back to the government on a specific matter you personally and substantially worked on during service.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 207 – Restrictions on Former Officers, Employees, and Elected Officials Helped evaluate a contract? You cannot later lobby the government about that contract on behalf of the winning bidder. Ever.
A two-year ban applies to matters you did not personally handle but that were pending under your official responsibility during your last year of government service. Official responsibility covers matters within your area of authority even when someone else on your team did the actual work.
Senior officials add a one-year cooling-off period on top. During that year, they may not contact their former department or agency on behalf of anyone seeking official action, pending or not. This applies to senior executives, political appointees, and active-duty officers at pay grade O-7 and above.
Job-Seeking While Still on Duty
Restrictions start before your last day. The moment you begin negotiating or even discussing future employment with a non-federal entity, you must disqualify yourself in writing from any matter that could directly and predictably affect that prospective employer.19Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office. Seeking Employment Restrictions If you’re already working on a project involving that company, the written disqualification has to happen before you start job-hunting, not after. You can withdraw the disqualification only once employment discussions have definitively ended, or two months after an unsolicited resume received no response.
Ethics Training
New DoD employees complete an ethics orientation within 90 days of starting, which runs about an hour of reviewing ethics materials. Financial disclosure filers then complete annual ethics training, also roughly an hour.20Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office. Annual Ethics Training Presidential appointees confirmed by the Senate must receive their annual training live rather than at their own pace. Frequency and format for other categories vary by job series and agency, so your ethics counselor is the right source for what applies to your position.