[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 190 (Monday, October 1, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49385-49386]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-21270]


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OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; 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 publication of this second round notice, 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 
modification are invited and must be received by October 31, 2018.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this paperwork notice to the 
Office of Management and Budget, Attn: Desk Officer for OGE, via fax at 
202-395-6974 or email at [email protected]. (Include 
reference to ``OGE Form 278e paperwork comment'' in the subject line of 
the message).

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 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 (October 5, 2016). The final rule was 
published on July 18, 2018, and is effective on January 1, 2019. See 83 
FR 33980 (July 18, 2018). The proposed modifications to the OGE Form 
278e revise the

[[Page 49386]]

instructions to reflect the changes to the financial disclosure 
regulation. 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.
    OGE published a first round notice of its intent to request 
paperwork clearance for a modified OGE Form 278e Executive Branch 
Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report. See 83 FR 32122 (July 11, 
2018). OGE received three responses to that notice. The first response 
was unrelated to the notice and did not address the information 
collection.
    The second comment suggested eliminating the requirement to report 
diversified mutual funds. The financial disclosure requirements are 
dictated by the Ethics in Government Act (EIGA), 5 U.S.C. app. sec. 
102, as amended. The commenter's suggested change could not be made 
without revisions to the EIGA. Accordingly, OGE declines to adopt this 
suggestion as a modification of the OGE Form 278e.
    The third comment was from an individual identifying himself as a 
former nominee to a Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed 
position. The commenter made several suggestions about how the 
government should address potential conflicts of interest identified 
through the financial disclosure review and certification process, as 
well as ways that the government could make that process more 
efficient. These matters are beyond the scope of the information 
collection and cannot be addressed through the modification of the OGE 
Form 278e. The commenter also made suggestions regarding the detail 
with which filers are required to report certain assets, suggesting 
that the form requires excessive reporting of ``low value'' data. As 
discussed above, the financial disclosure requirements are dictated by 
the EIGA. Therefore, OGE cannot make substantive changes to the 
financial disclosure reporting requirements through a modification of 
the OGE Form 278e.
    Finally, the third commenter also stated that the government's 
estimate of the reporting burden vastly understates the actual burden 
for candidates with extensive or complicated financial holdings. In 
addressing this issue, the commenter noted that completing the form 
required ``at least 40 hours of work'' by him and his family. He also 
noted that the government's cumulative response time during the review 
and certification process was 114 days. As an initial matter, OGE notes 
that its estimate of the average reporting burden for the 278e is 
currently ten hours, not three as stated by the commenter. Moreover, 
the estimated burden properly does not include the time spent by the 
government in reviewing and responding to the filers' completed forms. 
OGE's estimated time per response is an average based on the estimated 
burden on all types of filers--those with complicated financial 
holdings and those with simpler financial holdings. While OGE 
recognizes that the burden for a filer with extensive or complicated 
financial holdings may be significantly more than ten hours, the 
estimated burden for the majority of filers is fewer than five hours. 
Accordingly, OGE declines to revise its estimated burden at this time.
    Request for Comments: Agency and public comment is again 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 may be included with the 
OGE request for approval of the modified information collection. The 
comments will also become a matter of public record.

    Approved: September 26, 2018.
Diana Veilleux,
Chief, Legal, External Affairs and Performance Branch, Office of 
Government Ethics.
[FR Doc. 2018-21270 Filed 9-28-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6345-03-P