December 21, 1999
                                             DO-99-048
    

MEMORANDUM

TO:       Designated Agency Ethics Officials

FROM:     Stephen D. Potts
          Director

SUBJECT:  Second Paperwork Round For A Proposed Moderately Revised
          Version of the SF 278 Report Form


     The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has submitted a request
to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a three-year
renewal of paperwork approval for a proposed moderately revised
version of the SF 278 Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial
Disclosure Report.  As part of that request package, OGE has
published a "second round" Federal Register notice with any agency
or public comments due to OMB by January 18, 2000.  The notice was
published at 64 Federal Register 70259-70262 (December 16, 1999)
and can also be found through a link on OGE's Web site under the
"What's New In Ethics?" section.  The mark-up copy of the SF 278
itself as proposed for revision was not published, but is available
by contacting your OGE desk officer.

     As noted in OGE DAEOgrams of March 18, 1999, and July 19, 1999
(#s DO-99-011 and DO-99-030), OGE decided to propose modest changes
to the SF 278, retaining the same basic substance and design for
the form, and keeping it a standard form.  Four comments were
received from the agencies based on the first round notice
published last summer, along with a number of additional internal
OGE suggestions.  As explained in the notice of December 16th, OGE
has decided for now to stay with the modest changes originally
proposed with some further minor revisions.  A brief mention of
some of the proposed changes to the new edition of the SF 278
report form follows:

         incorporation of higher-category reporting, as
     required by amendments to the Ethics in Government Act,
     for any assets, income, liabilities and transactions,
     which are over $1,000,000 in value.  (Transactions will
     only be subject to this additional reporting requirement
     when the new form is finalized, since OGE just recently
     determined that they are included therein.)

         reflection of the new slightly higher thresholds for
     gifts and reimbursements (over $260 overall, with a $104
     or less "de minimis" threshold).

         addition of a new continuation page for transactions
     (Schedule B, Part I).

         inclusion of a new check-off box for indicating any
     filing extensions and, if so, the number of days granted.

     It will be some months before the new 2000 edition of the
SF 278 report form will be ready for ordering nationwide from the
General Services Administration's Customer Supply Centers. 
However, the form will be available earlier from the OGE Web site. 
Since the new edition will probably not come into general
circulation until late this winter or even spring, OGE will provide
for, and inform all agencies of, an appropriate transition period
during which the current usable editions (6/94 and 1/91) can still
be utilized.  Agencies will have to notify their personnel of,
among other things, the higher value categories and increased
gifts/reimbursement thresholds.  The transition period will include
the reports due by May 15, 2000, for the calendar year 1999 annual
report filing season.  Afterwards, the new 2000 edition will
supersede those prior editions which will no longer be usable.