# White House Ethics Transparency Act of 2021

When people get hired to work in the White House or other top government positions, they typically have to follow strict ethics rules. These rules are designed to prevent conflicts of interest and keep government officials from using their positions for personal gain. However, sometimes the President or other officials can grant "waivers" that let certain people skip these ethics requirements. This bill is about making sure the public knows when that happens.

Right now, when someone gets an ethics waiver, there's no requirement to tell anyone about it. This bill changes that by requiring officials to publicly disclose every ethics waiver they grant within 30 days. Specifically, when a waiver is issued, the government agency has to post it on their website, and a copy also goes to the Office of Government Ethics, which is the independent agency that oversees ethics compliance across the federal government. The Office of Government Ethics then has to post it on their own website so anyone can find it. This means if you want to know whether a high-ranking White House official or other top government appointee got permission to ignore ethics rules, you'd be able to look it up online.

The bill applies to the people most likely to get these waivers: presidential appointees, senior executives, and other top-level political staff. It doesn't cover foreign service officers or military officers, since they have different ethics systems. The practical effect is straightforward: instead of ethics waivers happening behind closed doors, they become public record. This gives Congress, the media, and ordinary citizens the ability to see who got special permission to bypass ethics requirements and potentially question whether those waivers were justified.

White House Ethics Transparency Act of 2021

Lynch, Stephen F.

White House Ethics Transparency Act of 2021 This bill creates transparency requirements for ethics waivers (i.e., waivers from the requirement to sign an ethics pledge) issued to executive branch appointees. Specifically, such ethics waivers must be transmitted to the Office of Government Ethics and made publicly available online.