60 FR 5818, Jan. 30, 1995, unless otherwise noted.
Employees of the Department of Education are subject to the executive branch-wide Standards of Ethical Conduct at 5 CFR part 2635 and to the Department of Education regulation at 5 CFR part 6301 which supplements the executive branch-wide standards with a requirement for employees to obtain prior approval to participate in certain outside activities. In addition, employees are subject to the executive branch-wide financial disclosure regulations at 5 CFR part 2634.
If a financial interest arises from ownership by an employee—or other person or enterprise referred to in 5 CFR 2635.402(b)(2)—of stock in a widely diversified mutual fund or other regulated investment company that in turn owns stock in another enterprise, that financial interest is exempt from the prohibition in 5 CFR 2635.402(a).
Any person in Government service should:
Put loyalty to the highest moral principles and to country above loyalty to persons, party, or Government department.
Uphold the Constitution, laws, and regulations of the United States and of all governments therein and never be a party to their evasion.
Give a full day's labor for a full day's pay; giving earnest effort and best thought to the performance of duties.
Seek to find and employ more efficient and economical ways of getting tasks accomplished.
Never discriminate unfairly by the dispensing of special favors or privileges to anyone, whether for remuneration or not; and never accept, for himself or herself or for family members, favors or benefits under circumstances which might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performance of governmental duties.
Make no private promises of any kind binding upon the duties of office, since a Government employee has no private word which can be binding on public duty.
Engage in no business with the Government, either directly or indirectly, which is inconsistent with the conscientious performance of governmental duties.
Never use any information gained confidentially in the performance of governmental duties as a means of making private profit.
Expose corruption wherever discovered.
Uphold these principles, ever conscious that public office is a public trust.
(This Code of Ethics was unanimously passed by the United States Congress on June 27, 1980, and signed into law as Public Law 96-303 by the President on July 3, 1980.)