Executive Branch Comprehensive Ethics Enforcement Act of 2019
This bill expands the duties and authorities of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and reauthorizes the OGE through FY2023.
Among other things, the bill authorizes the OGE to
- issue subpoenas during investigations, and
- order corrective actions (e.g., divestiture) and issue administrative remedies (e.g., suspension or demotion).
Additionally, the OGE shall provide public access on its website to agency records of conflicts of interest and ethics laws, rules and regulations, recusals, waivers and exemptions, and such other public records concerning conflicts of interest and ethics records required by law. The OGE shall make available to the public all financial disclosure reports and records relating to conflicts of interest waivers and other ethics determinations that are deemed to be public information.
The OGE must provide ethics education and training to all designated and alternate designated agency ethics officials, who must register with, and report to, the OGE and their appointing authority. Each agency must (1) provide all ethics records in a searchable, sortable, and downloadable format; and (2) post on its official website every issued recusal, waiver, exemption, ethics advisory opinion, ethics agreement, and certificate of divestiture.