Ethics in Government Act

The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-521) was enacted in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal to promote transparency and prevent conflicts of interest among government officials. The act established several key frameworks that remain central to government ethics regulation. It created the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) as an independent executive branch agency responsible for setting ethics standards, providing guidance, and overseeing executive branch ethics programs. It required senior government officials to file annual public financial disclosure reports (OGE Form 278) revealing their assets, income, liabilities, and outside positions.

It established criminal post-employment restrictions on former government officials, which were later expanded and now appear in 18 U.S.C. 207. And it originally created the Office of Independent Counsel (later restructured after the independent counsel statute expired in 1999). The financial disclosure provisions of the Ethics in Government Act are particularly relevant to the lobbying ecosystem.

They provide baseline transparency about the financial interests of the officials being lobbied, complementing the LDA's disclosure of lobbying activities and spending. When combined with lobbying disclosure data, financial disclosure reports can reveal potential conflicts of interest -- for example, when an official takes action on a matter that could affect their financial holdings. The Ethics in Government Act has been amended multiple times and remains a cornerstone of federal ethics law.