Today you're a federal employee,
but one day you may want to explore new
career opportunities in the private sector.
You'll need to be mindful of the
ethics rules that will apply while
you're pursuing those opportunities,
as well as another set of ethics rules
that will apply after you leave government.
Violating any of these rules puts you
at risk of investigation and the loss
of your new private sector job in
this video will help you understand
these rules better so that you can
spot issues and pursue that new job
in full compliance with the law.
Let's start with the seeking employment
rules which make sure you avoid conflicts
of interest while you're a federal employee.
These rules apply whether you contact
potential private sector employers
directly or go through a search firm.
In both cases, and regardless of
how you communicate with them,
you're seen as seeking employment
with those employers to avoid
potential conflicts of interest.
A criminal statute requires that
you immediately recuse or disqualify
yourself from working on any USDA
matter that would have a direct and
predictable effect on that employer.
Your recusal must stay in place until
either one you decline the job or remove
yourself from consideration to the potential.
Employer tells you you're no longer under
consideration or three two months go by
without contact from the potential employer.
And if the employer does hire you,
your recusal must remain in place
until you leave federal service.
If you're involved with the
procurement exceeding $10 million,
the Procurement Integrity Act
could prohibit you from receiving
salary or compensation from that
contractor for one year.
The list of positions covered by the
acts prohibition includes nearly
everyone involved in the evaluation
and administration of a contract
after you leave federal service,
you have further legal obligations.
That's when federal post government
employment rules kick in.
These rules are also based on.
Criminal statutes and restrict
your ability to switch sides from
the government to your new private
sector employer and its clients about
specific matters you participated
in as a federal employee.
Let's look at the two most common
federal post employment rules.
The first rule is a permanent ban,
and it applies to you if,
while at USDA you worked on party
matters like a contract, grant loan,
lease application, audit, inspection,
investigation, or litigation.
The rule states that once you
leave federal service,
you can never represent any third
party back to USDA or any executive
branch agency on those same party
matters that you directly worked on
when you were a government employee.
The second rule applies to managers,
supervisors or chiefs of staff
where the work done by others falls
under your official responsibility.
Under this rule,
you must not represent a third party
back to USDA or any other federal
agency or court about any of those same
specific lawsuits or transactions.
Your former USDA staff handled during
your last year of federal employment,
and that ban will apply for two
years after you
leave federal service.
Notice that these post
employment rules overlap,
so it's very possible that more than
one of the rules will apply to you.
In addition, depending on your specific
situation, other rules may also apply.
For example, if you're a senior official,
once you leave federal service,
you must not communicate with anyone
at USDA on behalf of any third party
for one year concerning any matters,
even on new matters that only
arose after you left government.
If you're a political appointee,
the White House ethics pledge imposes
additional requirements on you
after leaving the administration.
And if you're an attorney,
your State Bar will have its own rules of
professional responsibility for lawyers,
which will likely impose client
confidentiality requirements.
These rules can be difficult
to navigate if you're a federal
employee at another agency,
you should consult your own agencies,
ethics officials to make sure
you're in compliance before seeking
or accepting employment.
In the private sector,
if you're a USDA employee,
please contact the USDA Office of Ethics,
which also provides many resources
to answer your questions about
the seeking employment rules.
The Federal post government,
employment rules,
or any other federal ethics rules.
We're the USDA Office of Ethics
and we're here to help.