OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS

                                  94 X 18
 
                  Letter to the Monitoring Director of an
                Employee Association dated November 3, 1994


     Thank you for your letter of October 17, 1994, in which you
express certain concerns about the Standards of Ethical Conduct for
Employees of the Executive Branch regulation (the Standards) and
supplemental regulations that may be issued for employees of your
agency.

     You have asked for guidance about example 5 in the "Use of
nonpublic information" section of the Standards, at 5 C.F.R. 
 2635.703.  Section 2635.703 of the Standards provides that
employees may not use or allow the use of nonpublic information to
further their own private interests or the private interests of
others.  Example 5 explains this rule as follows:

          An employee of the Army Corps of Engineers is
          actively involved in the activities of an
          organization whose goals relate to protection
          of the environment.  The employee may not,
          other than as permitted by agency procedures,
          give the organization or a newspaper reporter
          nonpublic information about long-range plans
          to build a particular dam.

The private interest described in this example would be that of the
organization or that of the newspaper.  The result in this example
would be the same if the employee were not actively involved in the
organization.  Note, however, that nothing in the Standards would
permit the use of personnel actions against employees in reprisal
for lawful disclosures of information made by such employees on the
reasonable belief that the information thus disclosed evidences a
violation of law, rule, or regulation, or gross mismanagement, a
gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and
specific danger to public health or safety.

     You also have asked about the "Teaching, speaking and writing"
section of the Standards, at 5 C.F.R.  2635.807.  Section 2635.807
of the Standards provides that an employee may not receive
compensation -- including travel expenses for transportation and
lodging -- from any source other than the Government for teaching,
speaking or writing that relates to the employee's official duties. 
The section does not affect uncompensated teaching, speaking, and
writing.

     The restriction in section 2635.807 is at issue in Sanjour v.
United States, 786 F. Supp. 1033 (D.D.C. 1992), aff'd in part and
remanded, Sanjour v. Environmental Protection Agency, 984 F.2d 434
(D.C. Cir. 1993), vacated en banc, reh'g en banc granted, 997 F.2d
1584 (D.C. Cir. 1993).  It has been argued in the case that the
rule is not unduly restrictive and that the restriction is
consistent with the First Amendment.  The Court of Appeals reheard
argument in that case on February 9, 1994.  The Court of Appeals'
decision is being held in abeyance, pending the decision by the
Supreme Court in a related case, National Treasury Employees Union
v. United States, 990 F.2d 1271 (D.C. Cir. 1993), reh'g en banc
denied, 3 F.3d 1555 (D.C. Cir. 1993), cert. granted, United States
v. National Treasury Employees Union, 114 S. Ct. 1536 (1994). 
Until the litigation has concluded, further response by this Office
to your comments about the rule would be inappropriate.

     Finally, we have read your comments about [your Department's]
"Employee Responsibilities and Conduct" regulations in [citation
deleted].  As you probably know, [that] part of [the Department's]
regulations was largely superseded by the Standards.  Therefore, we
understand your comments about the [Department's] regulations to be
an attempt to assist in the development of any supplemental
regulations that [the Department] may issue.  Please be assured
that this Office will work closely with [the Department] to ensure
that any [Departmental] supplemental regulations are justified and
consistent with the Standards.

                                   Sincerely,

                                   Stephen D. Potts
                                   Director