Ethics in Government Act

Law

2 U.S.C. § 288 et seq.  | (1978)

established a comprehensive code of ethics for federal officials. It took account of both the House and Senate ethics codes but applied to the entire government, including the executive branch. It required government officers to file financial disclosure statements in order to make it possible to identify conflicts of interest, and it placed tighter restrictions on executive-branch employees' ability to register as lobbyists after leaving government service. The Act also created the office of special prosecutor (known as independent counsel after 1983) to investigate and prosecute top executive officials independent of the attorney general's office, and it established the Office of Government Ethics to administer the code's provisions.