[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 133 (Wednesday, July 11, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32122-32123]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-14840]


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OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request for a Modified OGE Form 278e Executive Branch Personnel 
Public Financial Disclosure Report

AGENCY: Office of Government Ethics (OGE).

ACTION: Notice of request for agency and public comments.

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SUMMARY: After this first round notice and public comment period, the 
Office of Government Ethics (OGE) intends to submit a modified OGE Form 
278e Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report to 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval under 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Written comments by the public and the agencies on this proposed 
extension are invited and must be received on or before September 10, 
2018.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted to OGE, by any of the following 
methods:
    Email: [email protected] (Include reference to ``OGE Form 278e 
paperwork comment'' in the subject line of the message.)
    FAX: 202-482-9237, Attn: Sara Nekou.
    Mail, Hand Delivery/Courier: Office of Government Ethics, 1201 New 
York Avenue NW, Suite 500, Attention: Sara Nekou, Assistant Counsel, 
Washington, DC 20005-3917.
    Instructions: Comments may be posted on OGE's website, www.oge.gov. 
Sensitive personal information, such as account numbers or Social 
Security numbers, should not be included. Comments generally will not 
be edited to remove any identifying or contact information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sara Nekou at the U.S. Office of 
Government Ethics; telephone: 202-482-9229; TTY: 800-877-8339; FAX: 
202-482-9237; Email: [email protected]. An electronic copy of the OGE Form 
278e is available in the Forms Library section of OGE's website at 
http://www.oge.gov. A paper copy may also be obtained, without charge, 
by contacting Ms. Nekou.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure 
Report.
    Form Number: OGE Form 278e.
    OMB Control Number: 3209-0001.
    Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved 
collection.
    Type of Review Request: Regular.
    Respondents: Private citizen Presidential nominees to executive 
branch positions subject to Senate confirmation; other private citizens 
who are potential (incoming) Federal employees whose positions are 
designated for public disclosure filing; those who file termination 
reports from such positions after their Government service ends; and 
Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates.
    Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 4,821.
    Estimated Time per Response: 10 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 48,210 hours.
    Abstract: The OGE Form 278 collects information from certain 
officers and high-level employees in the executive branch for conflicts 
of interest review and public disclosure. The form is also completed by 
individuals who are nominated by the President for high-level executive 
branch positions requiring Senate confirmation and individuals entering 
into and departing from other public reporting positions in the 
executive branch. The financial information collected relates to: 
Assets and income; transactions; gifts, reimbursements and travel 
expenses; liabilities; agreements or arrangements; outside positions; 
and compensation over $5,000 paid by a source--all subject to various 
reporting thresholds and exclusions. The information is collected in 
accordance with section

[[Page 32123]]

102 of the Ethics in Government Act, 5 U.S.C. app. sec. 102, as amended 
by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (Pub. L. 
112-105) (STOCK Act) and OGE's implementing financial disclosure 
regulations at 5 CFR part 2634.
    In 2013, OGE sought and received approval for the OGE Form 278e, an 
electronic version of the Form 278, implemented pursuant to the e-
filing system mandated under section 11(b) of the STOCK Act. The OGE 
Form 278e collects the same information as the OGE Form 278. In 2014, 
OGE sought and received approval to incorporate the OGE Form 278e into 
its new Integrity e-filing application. Integrity has been in use since 
January 1, 2015, and OGE now requires filers to use a version of the 
OGE Form 278e rather than the old OGE Form 278. The version of the Form 
278e that is produced by Integrity is a streamlined output report 
format that presents only the filer's inputs in given categories and 
does not report other categories not selected by the filer.
    On October 5, 2016, OGE published a proposed rule for amending 5 
CFR part 2634. See 81 FR 69204-69238 (October 5, 2016). The proposed 
modifications to the OGE Form 278e revise the instructions to reflect 
the changes to the financial disclosure regulation, if adopted as 
final. Specifically, OGE proposes to: Revise the reporting period for 
termination reports to include the entire preceding calendar year if a 
required annual report has not been filed; revise the income disclosure 
requirement to include only received income; revise the ``widely 
diversified'' criterion for purposes of determining whether a fund 
qualifies as an ``excepted investment fund;'' add a new feature 
(checkbox) for purposes of managing early termination report filing on 
the Integrity version of the Form 278e; clarify the Definition section 
of Part 2; clarify when a source of compensation need not be disclosed 
and the method for disclosing the existence of such sources; and 
eliminate the disclosure of transactions that occurred before the 
reporting individual became subject to the public financial disclosure 
requirements.
    OGE is also proposing to update the Privacy Act statement in 
accordance with changes to the applicable system of records and to make 
certain minor formatting changes and corrections to the instructions 
and one of the data entry fields.
    Request for Comments: Agency and public comment is invited 
specifically on the need for and practical utility of this information 
collection, the accuracy of OGE's burden estimate, the enhancement of 
quality, utility and clarity of the information collected, and the 
minimization of burden (including the use of information technology). 
Comments received in response to this notice will be summarized for, 
and may be included with, the OGE request for extension of OMB 
paperwork approval. The comments will also become a matter of public 
record.

    Approved: July 3, 2018.
David Apol,
Acting Director and General Counsel, Office of Government Ethics.
[FR Doc. 2018-14840 Filed 7-10-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6345-03-P