Government Ethics Rules
How Government Ethics Rules Work
Federal ethics rules explain how officials disclose assets, avoid conflicts of interest, follow gift limits, and face lobbying bans after leaving government.
Ethics and Conflicts of Interest
Ethics and conflicts of interest is about keeping officials from using public power to benefit themselves, their families, or their friends. It covers the rules that officials follow, the financial information they share, and how those rules differ across branches and levels of government. Ethics offices, Congress, the courts, and agencies interpret and enforce them.
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September 26last updated
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The Webby-recognized AI behind our articles »
Latest in Ethics and Conflicts of Interest
Stock Trading By Officials
How You Can See Your Congressperson’s Stock Trades
You can see what stocks your representatives buy and sell but it's not as simple as it should be. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK)…
Stock Trading By Officials
Congressional Stock Trading: The Law, the Conflicts, and the Push for a Ban
Members of Congress are legally allowed to buy, sell, and hold individual stocks and other financial assets. This simple fact drives one of the most significant…
Federal Bureaucracy and Civil Service
The Hatch Act: How Federal Rules Ban Government Workers from Politics
The Hatch Act of 1939, formally known as "An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities," is a federal statute that create a wall between politics and…
Topics in Ethics and Conflicts of Interest
Rules and conflicts
Government Ethics Rules covers the standards for public employees and officials. Ethics By Branch covers how those standards differ among Congress, the executive branch, and the courts, and State and Local Ethics covers the standards below the federal level. Conflicts of Interest and Management covers how conflicts are spotted and handled.
Personal finances
Financial Disclosure covers reports on officials' money and holdings. Blind Trusts covers arrangements that keep officials from directing their own investments, and Stock Trading By Officials covers market trading by people who hold office.
All Articles on Ethics and Conflicts of Interest
A Short History of White House Nepotism
The question of whether a U.S. president can appoint family members to government positions seems straightforward. Federal law passed in 1967 appears to say…
Political Appointees vs. Career Staff in the U.S. Government
The executive branch of the United States government operates through two distinct and fundamentally different classes of personnel. On one hand are the political…
The Pentagon’s Ethics Rulebook
The Department of Defense operates on a simple principle: public service is a public trust. With millions of military and civilian personnel and a…
How Ethics Rules Differ Between Congress and the Executive Branch
When government officials break ethical rules, the consequences vary dramatically depending on where they work. A Cabinet secretary caught taking inappropriate gifts faces different…
Government Independence vs. Corporate Control: How Industries Capture Their Regulators
Federal agencies exist to protect the public from unsafe drugs, financial fraud, environmental pollution, and countless other threats. But what happens when the watchdogs…