Standards of Ethical Conduct for Executive Branch Employees

The standards of ethical conduct for executive branch employees are set out in a single regulation, 5 C.F.R. Part 2635, and they apply the same way whether you work at a cabinet department or a small independent agency.¹ The Office of Government Ethics administers them. Together with a handful of criminal statutes that back them up, they cover gifts, financial conflicts, impartiality, use of your position, outside work, job hunting, life after you leave, and the disclosure reports that let anyone check whether you are actually following the rules.

Accepting Gifts From Outside the Government

You generally cannot accept a gift from anyone who has business before your agency, seeks official action from it, is regulated by it, or whose interests could be significantly affected by your work. These people are “prohibited sources,” and the label also reaches organizations where a majority of members fall into those categories.² You also cannot accept anything offered because of your official position, even from someone who is not a prohibited source.³

The main opening is the de minimis rule. You may accept an unsolicited gift worth $20 or less on a single occasion, so long as gifts from the same source do not exceed $50 in a calendar year. Cash and investment interests like stocks or bonds never qualify, at any amount. If a gift exceeds $20, you cannot pay the difference to bring it under the cap.⁴

Some things simply are not “gifts” and do not eat into the limits: coffee, soft drinks, donuts, and similar snacks offered outside a meal; greeting cards, plaques, certificates, and trophies meant for presentation; and discounts or benefits available to all government employees or the general public.² If you end up with something you should not have kept, return it or pay full market value promptly.

Widely Attended Gatherings

A separate exception lets you accept free attendance at a “widely attended gathering” from a prohibited source, but only with advance written approval from your agency’s designee. The designee has to find that your attendance furthers agency programs and that this interest outweighs any appearance of improper influence. The event must draw a diverse group and provide a real opportunity to exchange ideas. Passive-viewing events like sporting events or concerts generally do not qualify.⁵

In most cases, the event should draw at least 20 people. If someone other than the sponsor is covering your attendance, more than 100 people must be expected and the gift’s value cannot exceed $480. You attend in your personal capacity and must use leave or approved excused absence if the event falls during work hours.⁵

Gifts Inside the Workplace

You cannot give a gift to your official superior or accept one from a coworker who earns less than you do, and you cannot solicit contributions from coworkers for a gift to a supervisor.⁶ For ordinary occasions like holidays and birthdays, you may give an item (not cash) worth $10 or less.⁷

For infrequent personal milestones such as a marriage, the birth of a child, or retirement, the $10 cap is relaxed and employees may voluntarily contribute to a group gift for a supervisor. Voluntary is the key word. No one should feel pressure to contribute.

Financial Conflicts of Interest

Financial conflicts are the piece of the standards with the sharpest teeth, because they are backed by a criminal statute. Under 18 U.S.C. § 208, you cannot participate personally and substantially in any official matter that could predictably affect your financial interests, or those of your spouse, minor child, general partner, or any organization where you serve as an officer, director, or employee.⁸

The usual fix is recusal: you notify your supervisor that you will not participate in decisions involving the conflicting entity. Sometimes you must divest. Penalties run on two tracks. Criminal exposure is up to one year in prison for a standard violation, up to five years for a willful one, plus fines. A civil penalty of up to $50,000 per violation, or the amount of compensation received (whichever is greater), can be layered on top.⁹

Small Securities Holdings

Not every stock triggers a conflict. Where a matter involves specific parties and your only disqualifying interest is publicly traded securities, you can participate as long as the combined value held by you, your spouse, and your minor children in all affected entities stays at or below $15,000. If the affected entity is not a party but merely affected by the matter, that threshold rises to $25,000. For broader matters like rulemaking that do not involve specific parties, you can hold up to $25,000 in any single affected entity and up to $50,000 across all affected entities.¹⁰

Diversified Mutual Funds

Diversified mutual funds are generally exempt. A fund counts as diversified if it does not concentrate its investments in any single industry, business, individual country other than the United States, or bonds of a single state. Check the prospectus or ask the fund manager.¹¹ Sector funds do not qualify. A broad-market index fund is fine; an energy-sector ETF is not, even if it holds hundreds of companies.

Impartiality and Personal Relationships

Even without a financial conflict, you may still need to step aside if a reasonable person aware of the facts would question your objectivity. The trigger is a “covered relationship”: close family members, members of your household, anyone you have a business or financial relationship with, organizations where you actively participate, and entities where your spouse, parent, or child works.¹²

Former employers count. For one year after leaving a position, you need authorization from an ethics official before working on matters involving that former employer, and authorization comes only when the agency’s interest in your participation outweighs the concern about bias.¹²

A stricter rule kicks in if you received more than $10,000 from a former employer after that employer learned you were being considered for or had accepted a government position. That payment triggers a mandatory two-year recusal from any matter where the former employer is a party or represents a party. The two-year clock runs from the date you received the payment, not the date you started government service. Payments made under the employer’s established compensation or benefits program do not count, as long as the program does not treat departing employees who enter government more favorably than others.¹³

Using Your Position, Information, and Equipment

Your title, your access to internal information, and the equipment on your desk belong to the public. You cannot use any of them for private gain, yours or anyone else’s. That includes endorsing products or services, lending the prestige of your office to a private venture, and making public statements that imply government backing for your personal views.¹⁴

Nonpublic information is a common trip-up. If you learn something through your government work that has not been made available to the public, you cannot use it in financial transactions, share it to benefit someone else, or disclose it without authorization. This covers information routinely exempt from public disclosure, marked confidential by your agency, or simply not yet released.¹⁵ Trading on knowledge of an upcoming regulatory action is the textbook case, but the rule reaches advice and recommendations, too.

Government vehicles, computers, and supplies are for government work, and you cannot direct subordinates to run personal errands on the clock.¹⁶ Many agencies allow limited personal use of computers and phones on breaks, but with conditions: minimal cost to the government, no interference with your work, no ethical violations. Running a side business on government equipment is never authorized.

Outside Employment and Activities

A second job is generally allowed, with limits. The tightest restriction covers compensated teaching, speaking, and writing that relates to your official duties. You cannot accept payment from a non-government source when the activity deals substantially with matters you are currently assigned to or were assigned to within the past year, covers ongoing agency programs or policies, or draws on nonpublic information. The same prohibition applies when the invitation was extended primarily because of your official position rather than your personal expertise, or when the person offering compensation has interests that could be affected by your work.¹⁷

Many agencies require written prior approval before you take on outside employment so an ethics official can spot conflicts up front.¹⁸ Even where no formal process exists, you remain personally responsible for making sure the outside role does not create a conflict or compromise your impartiality.

Fundraising

When raising money for a charity in your personal capacity, you cannot use your official title, position, or any authority tied to your office. The one narrow opening: if you are ordinarily addressed by a general term like “The Honorable” or a military rank, you may use that term of address.¹⁹

You also cannot personally solicit donations from a subordinate or from anyone you know to be a prohibited source. Personal solicitation means a direct person-to-person request or a targeted use of your name. Mass-produced fundraising letters that happen to reach a subordinate are fine, provided you did not know they were targeted at subordinates or prohibited sources.¹⁹

Looking for a Job Outside the Government

The moment you start exploring a job outside government, you take on a duty to recuse from matters that could affect the prospective employer. The trigger is earlier than most people expect. You are “seeking employment” as soon as you begin job discussions, send an unsolicited resume, or respond to a recruiting overture with anything other than a flat rejection. Requesting a job application form does not count; anything warmer than that does.²⁰

Once you are seeking employment, step away from any official matter that would affect that prospective employer, and notify a supervisor, ethics official, or coworker so assignments get redirected. Written notice is not always required, but it is almost always smart. A paper trail protects you if questions come up later.²¹

The obligation ends when you or the prospective employer clearly reject the possibility and all discussions stop, or when two months pass after you sent an unsolicited resume with no sign of interest. Deferring a conversation to a future date does not count as a rejection.²⁰

Restrictions After You Leave

Walking out the door does not end your obligations. Federal law imposes several post-employment restrictions, and violations are criminal.

Permanent Ban on Matters You Handled

If you participated personally and substantially in a particular matter involving specific parties while in government, you are permanently barred from contacting the government on someone else’s behalf about that same matter. Not for a year, not for ten years. Forever.²²

Two-Year Ban on Matters Under Your Responsibility

A broader restriction covers matters you did not personally handle but that fell under your official responsibility during your last year of service. For two years after leaving, you cannot contact the government on anyone else’s behalf about those matters, even if you were only generally overseeing them, as long as they involved specific parties.²²

Cooling-Off Periods for Senior Employees

Senior employees, generally those paid at Executive Schedule rates or at 86.5% or more of Executive Schedule Level II, face a one-year ban on contacting their former agency on behalf of anyone else, on any matter, even one they never touched. Very senior employees, such as certain presidential appointees, face a two-year version of the same ban.²³ Violations carry up to one year in prison for a standard offense and up to five years for a willful one, plus civil penalties of up to $50,000.⁹

Financial Disclosure Reports

These rules are not on the honor system. Financial disclosure reports let agencies and the public check that employees are following the conflict rules.

Public Disclosure (OGE Form 278e)

Senior officials file public financial disclosure reports. The threshold generally covers employees paid at or above 120% of the minimum base pay for GS-15, members of the Senior Executive Service, presidential appointees, military officers at pay grade O-7 and above, and administrative law judges.²⁴ These reports are available to the public on request. File more than 30 days late and you owe a $200 late filing fee to the U.S. Treasury.²⁵

Confidential Disclosure (OGE Form 450)

Below the public-filing threshold, you may still need to file a confidential report if your duties involve contracting, grant administration, regulation of outside entities, or other work that could directly affect non-federal financial interests. Agencies have some flexibility to set their own thresholds based on procurement authority or pay grade.²⁶ Confidential filings are not available to the public, and the $200 late fee does not apply; late filings are handled administratively.²⁵

1
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 2635 – Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.203 – Definitions
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.201 – Overview and Considerations for Declining Otherwise Permissible Gifts
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.204 – Exceptions to the Prohibition for Acceptance of Certain Gifts
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U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Widely Attended Gatherings
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.301 – Overview
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.304 – Exceptions
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 208 – Acts Affecting a Personal Financial Interest
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 216 – Penalties and Injunctions
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2640.202 – Exemptions for Interests in Securities
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2640.102 – Definitions
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.502 – Personal and Business Relationships
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.503 – Covered Payments from Former Employers
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.702 – Use of Public Office for Private Gain
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.703 – Use of Nonpublic Information
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.701 – Overview
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.807 – Teaching, Speaking, and Writing
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.801 – Overview
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.808 – Fundraising Activities
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.603 – Definitions
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.604 – Recusal While Seeking Employment
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 207 – Restrictions on Former Officers, Employees, and Elected Officials of the Executive and Legislative Branches
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eCFR. 5 CFR Part 2641 – Post-Employment Conflict of Interest Restrictions
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U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Public Financial Disclosure Guide
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2634.704 – Late Filing Fee
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U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Confidential Financial Disclosure Guide – OGE Form 450