White House Makes Available Ten Ethics Waivers Granted by Federal Agencies

The White House announced today that it has consolidated and released ten ethics waivers granted by federal agencies under the Obama Administration.  The ethics waivers made certain Executive Branch appointees exempt from conflict of interest and revolving door restrictions set forth in Executive Order 13490.  Previously, the Executive Branch had only released the six waivers granted by the White House.

POGO applauds the White House's decision to make the waivers publicly available and to continue steps towards transparency.  To the White House's credit, in only 16 of the 1890 appointments has the Executive Branch granted a waiver.  And according to Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, in each of the ten agency waivers "it was determined by an agency ethics officer after careful review that the public interest in permitting the appointee’s participation outweighed any appearance concerns."

While they're at it, we might suggest making all the waivers searchable.  Right now, much of the waiver text is locked away in .pdf files impenetrable to google searches by potential citizen investigators.  Still, it's great to see the White House respond to public entreaties to make the previously unreleased ethics waivers available.

-- Bryan Rahija