C. Simon Davidson
| May 15, 2012, Midnight
Last month, President Barack Obama signed into law the STOCK Act, which “affirms” that Members and staffers have a duty not to trade on material, nonpublic information they learn while doing their jobs.
C. Simon Davidson
| April 24, 2012, Midnight
In two recent decisions, federal courts have answered questions from columns earlier this year. While both cases raised the prospect of significant changes to federal political law, the courts’ decisions ultimately left things much as they were.
C. Simon Davidson
| March 27, 2012, Midnight
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, passed by Congress last week, has been described as a new prohibition on insider trading by Members and staffers. But some have questioned how much the act really changes.
C. Simon Davidson
| March 13, 2012, Midnight
The Federal Election Campaign Act restricts the extent to which individuals and organizations may contribute money to federal election campaigns. One of the act’s restrictions is an outright ban on contributions by any person who is negotiating or performing a contract with a federal agency.
C. Simon Davidson
| Feb. 28, 2012, Midnight
House rules generally prohibit providing anything of value to staffers. One exception to the gift ban allows staffers to accept free attendance at what are called “widely attended events,” even where individuals outside Congress must pay to attend.
C. Simon Davidson
| Feb. 14, 2012, Midnight
Last week, the House approved a bill widely known as the STOCK Act. As the bill wound its way through Congress, much of the media coverage focused on the bill’s ban of “insider trading” by Members and staffers. Less attention has been received by some key amendments made to the bill in the Senate before it was sent to the House.
C. Simon Davidson
| Jan. 31, 2012, Midnight
It is OK to provide services to contributors. In fact, the Senate Ethics Manual specifically says that providing constituent services to contributors is “a legitimate and appropriate senatorial function.” However, as the Senate Ethics Committee has acknowledged, things are a little more complicated when requests for help come from contributors.
C. Simon Davidson
| Jan. 17, 2012, Midnight
Q: A friend and I have been following former Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) appeal of his conviction for bribery. Over the holidays, I read that the appeal could significantly impact federal law regarding bribery. Can you help me understand what is at stake in Jefferson’s appeal?
C. Simon Davidson
| Dec. 6, 2011, Midnight
By the end of 2010, it was fair to ask whether the latest ethics boom had begun to wane. 2011 answered that question with a bang. For the time being, at least, government ethics remains in the spotlight. Ethics scandals, investigations, and other similar news-making events were all part of 2011.
C. Simon Davidson
| Nov. 15, 2011, Midnight
Q: A senior staffer in our office recently told me that he is seeking a job in the private sector. He has already interviewed with a number of firms and plans to interview with a few more, but he has yet to schedule interviews. I am pretty sure that there was a rule change a few years back requiring staffers to report job negotiations with outside employers in order to prevent conflicts of interest. But the senior staffer hasn’t done so. Should I report him to the Ethics Committee?
C. Simon Davidson
| Nov. 1, 2011, Midnight
It is not illegal for House staffers to work on campaigns. But doing so is not without risk. In fact, a handful of laws are implicated whenever Hill staff work on campaigns, each carrying its own risks.
C. Simon Davidson
| Oct. 18, 2011, Midnight
Q: I work for a lobbying firm, and I have a question about possible changes to the executive branch gift rules. A lobbyist friend of mine told me that the changes would eliminate some important exceptions to the ban on gifts to executive branch employees.
C. Simon Davidson
| Oct. 4, 2011, Midnight
On June 3, the Department of Justice filed an indictment against John Edwards for alleged violations of federal campaign finance laws related to his affair. The case against Edwards hinges on whether payments made by associates qualify as campaign contributions.
C. Simon Davidson
| Sept. 13, 2011, Midnight
Essentially, the question is whether people can face liability even when they do not realize what they are doing is wrong. In the case of criminal law, the answer is usually no. However, it is possible to violate civil statutes and face sanctions even if you have no idea that what you are doing is wrong.
C. Simon Davidson
| July 26, 2011, Midnight
The question is whether the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act includes similar training requirements for lobbyists. Technically, the answer is no. But, that is not the end of the story. Although the law imposes no formal legal requirement that lobbyists receive ethics training, it does include other provisions that could make training a good idea.
C. Simon Davidson
| June 28, 2011, Midnight
Last week, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics filed an ethics complaint against Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), alleging he committed bribery by threatening to block a proposed pay raise for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unless Salazar’s department issued a minimum number of deep-water exploratory permits in the Gulf.
C. Simon Davidson
| June 14, 2011, Midnight
House ethics standards not only permit Members to communicate with agencies on behalf of constituents, they downright encourage it. But Members must be careful of what they say to agency employees, how they say it and when they say it.
C. Simon Davidson
| May 31, 2011, Midnight
Former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) resigned last month amid a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of his conduct relating to an affair with a former campaign worker. According to the committee's report, the conduct that could expose Ensign to liability is not the affair itself, but rather what he did after the affair.
