The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has proposed revisions to federal ethics rules that prohibit Executive Branch employees from soliciting and accepting gifts from contractors.
The proposed rule incorporates past interpretive guidance, includes updated citations, provides new examples, and clarifies the definition of “gift.” For example, the rule expands the exception from the definition of gifts for items of low intrinsic value that are “solely” for presentation to items of low intrinsic value that are “primarily” for presentation.
Previous exceptions to the gift rule are now listed as exclusions; for instance, a free offer to attend an event on the day the employee is speaking or presenting at the event is excluded from the definition of gift. An added example illustrates that the exclusion for “modest items of food and refreshment” does not include alcoholic beverages served at a Government contractor’s holiday party.
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