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Ethics DivisionView waivers of the administration's ethics pledge (Executive Order 13989)
Ethics at a Glance
Political Activities:
What Can I Do?
Generally, as a result of the 1993 amendments to the Hatch Act, Federal employees may participate in political management or political campaign activities The basic "Do's" and "Don'ts" are:
Under the Hatch Act, unless otherwise noted, career and non-career employees are treated the same. However, these guidelines do not apply to career SES employees or administrative law judges whose political activities are more restricted. Any additional restrictions on non-career employees would be by Department policy. Check with the Special Assistant/White House Liaison in the Office of the Secretary.
Outside Activities
Most employees may earn outside income and engage in outside activities, subject only to the Federal conflict of interest statutes and the Standards of Ethical Conduct. Generally, employees may engage in any activities - paid or volunteer - as long as the activities do not require the employee to disqualify him or herself from duties central to his or her position within the Department. In addition, although complicated by a recent court decision and subject to an exception for teaching certain courses - in most circumstances, employees may not accept pay (including travel reimbursement) for teaching speaking, or writing related to the employee's duties.
Employees must obtain approval prior to:
a social, fraternal, civic, or political entity,
a religious organization that is not a prohibited source; or
a PTA or similar organization at the employee's child's school or day care center, other than as a member of the Board of Directors or other governing board of the school or center; or<
volunteering to tutor or provide direct social or medical services.
Denials are rare, but they do happen. For example, an employee sought approval to work part-time for a non-profit grantee of the Department. The employee's duties included monitoring the performance of the grantee, and her supervisor indicated that it was impossible to assign this project to a co-worker. The employee would be barred by law from doing her Department job if she took this part-time position. Therefore, the Department denied her request.
The definition includes, among other things:
In most, if not all, cases approval will be granted. However, because criminal conflict of interest statutes restrict some activities of Federal employees, the approval process gives the Ethics Office an opportunity to give you advice about these restrictions. For example, as a Federal employee, you may not represent the school before a Federal agency (the Internal Revenue Service, for example). Further, even though you are not paid to serve on this Board, it would be a violation of a criminal law for you to participate in a particular matter at the Department that has a direct and predictable effect upon the financial interests of the school. Thus, absent a waiver, you are required to disqualify yourself from both general policy and specific party matters that involve the school or affect its financial interests.
You may get a copy of the form from your Executive Officer or the Ethics Division.
The Standards of Ethical Conduct limit gifts between employees, particularly gifts to supervisors. The general rule is: an employee may not give - or make a donation toward - a gift for his or her supervisor. An employee's supervisor includes the employee's immediate supervisor as well as any other employees who direct or evaluate the employee's performance or the performance of any of the employee's supervisory superiors.
There are three basic exceptions to this rule:
The purpose of these rules is to protect employees from feeling coerced into giving gifts, while permitting some limited, voluntary social exchange between employees. Thus, supervisors may not solicit gifts from those they supervise - even if the gift is for another employee (and certainly not for themselves or another supervisor). Someone on your staff will have to take the initiative to hold this event. Of course, you may, on your own, give your employee a baby gift.
Employees may bring - or collect voluntary contributions to buy - a cake and other refreshments to share in the office for a birthday party. It is not permissible, however, for the staff to collect money and "chip in" together to buy a birthday gift, although employees individually may give the supervisor a gift valued at $10 or less. Similarly, because a group gift is impermissible for this type of recurring event, it is not proper for the group to take the supervisor to a restaurant for lunch.
An employee may directly or indirectly give a gift to a supervisor on special, infrequent occasions, such as a major illness. For these types of events, a group of employees may voluntarily "chip-in" nominal money contributions (e.g., less than $10) to purchase the flower arrangement, or an employee may send flowers on his or her own.
Gifts between employees and supervisors are permitted on an occasional basis, including occasions when gifts are traditionally exchanged. This is much too frequent to be considered occasional.
Contributions must be voluntary. Thus, although an amount may be recommended, the recommendation must also indicate that employees are free to contribute less or nothing at all.