5 U.S.C. § 13122 — Authority and functions

(a) Overall direction: The Director, working with the Office of Personnel Management, provides overall direction for executive branch policies on preventing conflicts of interest among officers and employees of any executive agency (as defined in section 105). (b) Responsibilities of Director: The Director's responsibilities include: (1) Developing, with the Attorney General and the Office of Personnel Management, rules the President or Director will issue on conflicts of interest and ethics in the executive branch — including rules for filing, reviewing, and making public the financial statements required by subchapter I. (2) Developing, with the same partners, rules for identifying and resolving conflicts of interest. (3) Monitoring and investigating compliance with subchapter I's public financial disclosure rules, both by the officers and employees who file and by the agency officials who receive, review, and release those statements. (4) Reviewing financial statements to spot possible violations of conflict-of-interest laws or regulations, and recommending fixes for any conflicts or ethics problems found. (5) Monitoring and investigating compliance with any other financial reporting or internal review rules the executive branch has by law. (6) Interpreting the President's or Director's rules on conflicts of interest, ethics, and filing financial statements. (7) Consulting, when asked, with agency ethics counselors and other officials on resolving individual conflict-of-interest cases. (8) Setting up a formal advisory opinion service — issuing opinions on matters of general importance or first-of-their-kind questions, generally after letting interested parties comment in writing, and then compiling, publishing, and sharing those opinions with agency ethics counselors and the public. (9) Ordering whatever corrective action the Director thinks agencies and employees need to take. (10) Requiring reports from executive agencies as the Director thinks necessary. (11) Helping the Attorney General evaluate how well conflict-of-interest laws work and recommend amendments. (12) Evaluating, with help from the Attorney General and Office of Personnel Management, whether the Director's and agencies' rules on conflicts of interest need to change, to keep them consistent with and useful alongside conflict-of-interest laws. (13) Working with the Attorney General to build an effective system for reporting alleged conflict-of-interest law violations to the Attorney General, as section 535 of title 28 requires. (14) Providing information about, and promoting understanding of, ethical standards in executive agencies. (15) Developing and issuing, with the Office of Personnel Management, rules on how to evaluate anything subchapter I requires to be reported. (c) Consultation: When developing policies, rules, regulations, procedures, and forms, the Director must consult, when appropriate, with the affected executive agencies and the Attorney General. (d) Established written procedures: (1) In general: Using whatever authority this subchapter gives, the Director must make sure every executive agency has written procedures for how it collects, reviews, evaluates, and — where required — publicly releases the financial disclosure statements its officers and employees file. (2) Conformance: The Director must ensure each agency's procedures actually match every applicable requirement, whether set by law, rule, regulation, or executive order. (e) Reports from executive agencies: To carry out subsection (b)(10), the Director must issue regulations requiring: (1) Each executive agency to send the Office an annual report containing (A) a description and evaluation of the agency's ethics program, including any education, counseling, or other services it provided during the reporting period; (B) the title and duties of (i) whoever the agency head put in charge of running the ethics program during the period, and (ii) whoever served as that person's alternate; and (C) any other information the Director may require to carry out the Director's duties under this subchapter; and (2) Each executive agency to tell the Director whenever it refers an alleged federal conflict-of-interest violation to the Attorney General under 28 U.S.C. § 535 — except that this notification requirement does not override any other law barring the disclosure. (f) Corrective actions: (1) Executive agencies: In carrying out subsection (b)(9) for agencies, the Director (A) may (i) order an agency to take specific corrective action if it fails to set up (or properly modify) a system for collecting, filing, reviewing, and — where applicable — publicly showing financial disclosure statements, in line with the rules; or (ii) order an agency to establish or modify its ethics program in other ways required by the rules; and (B) must, if an agency does not comply with such an order within a reasonable time, tell the President and Congress in writing about the noncompliance, including any written comments the agency offers. (2) Individual officers and employees: (A) In general: For individual officers and employees, (i) the Director may recommend and advise them on how to comply with conflict-of-interest or conduct rules; (ii) if the Director has reason to believe someone is violating or has violated such a rule, the Director (I) may recommend that the person's agency head investigate and, if a violation is found, take appropriate discipline (reprimand, suspension, demotion, or dismissal) — except that if the person is the agency head, the recommendation goes to the President instead — and (II) must notify the President in writing if the agency head has not investigated within a reasonable time after the Director's recommendation; (iii) if the Director actually finds a violation, the Director (I) may order the person to take specific action (like divesting assets, recusing, or setting up a blind trust) to stop the violation, and (II) must, if the person does not comply within a reasonable time, notify the agency head in writing — or the President, if the violator is the agency head; and (iv) if the Director finds a current or past violation, the Director (I) may recommend appropriate discipline to the agency head (or the President, if the violator is the agency head), and (II) may notify the President in writing if the agency head has not disciplined the person within a reasonable time after the recommendation. (B) Investigations and findings concerning possible violations: (i) Authority of Director: To carry out the Director's duties under (A)(iii) or (iv), the Director may investigate and make findings about possible violations of conflict-of-interest or conduct rules. (ii) Notification of alleged violation and opportunity to comment: (I) Before making a finding under (A)(iii) or (iv) (except as (iv) below allows), the officer or employee must be told about the alleged violation and given a chance to comment, orally or in writing. (II) The Director must set up notice-and-comment procedures under section 553. (iii) Hearing: Before the Director orders action under (A)(iii), the officer or employee must be offered a hearing if they ask for one, and that hearing must be on the record — except as (iv) below allows. (iv) Exception: The notice, comment, and hearing procedures in (ii) and (iii) do not apply to findings or orders made just to enforce subchapter I's financial disclosure requirements — for those, section 13108's procedures apply instead. (3) Copies of orders relating to finding of violation: The Director must send a copy of any order made under (2)(A)(iii) to (A) the officer or employee it is about, and (B) that person's agency head — or, if that person is the agency head, to the President. (4) Agency headed by board, committee, or other group: If an agency is headed by a board, committee, or other group rather than one person, anything that would otherwise go to "the agency head" under (2)(A)(ii), (iii), (iv), or (3)(B) instead goes to the officer's or employee's appointing authority. (5) No authority to make findings of criminal law violations: Nothing in this subchapter lets the Director find that anyone has violated title 18 or any other federal criminal law. (6) Limitation on availability of records: Despite any other law, no record developed under this section about an investigation of a possible conflict-of-interest violation may be released under section 552(a)(3) (FOIA) unless the request names the individual involved and describes the subject of the alleged violation — except that section 552(b)'s exemptions still apply to any record identified this way.