National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health Ethics Program

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Policies, Laws, Regulations

There are several statutes and regulations which outline the requirements of Federal Government employees.  It is important to know that these exist and to use them as resources, rather than to memorize numbers or wording.

NIH Manual Chapters web site (NIH/OMA web site)

NIH Ethics Manual (Manual Chapter 2400)

NIH Official Duty Activity Policy (1/23/08) includes link to the NIH Official Duty Activity Summary Table

Protocol Review Guide (COI Guide)

Senior Status at the NIH (4/25/06, pdf)

Supervisor Responsibilities (2/16/04, pdf)

HHS Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO) Supplemental Instructions (HHS intranet)

HHS Supplemental Standards
On February 3, 2005, HHS published revised Supplemental Standards of Ethical Conduct (5 CFR 5501) and a new Supplemental Financial Disclosure Requirements section (5 CFR 5502), both effective on that date.  On August 31, 2005, HHS published the Final Rule for both sections.

NIH Conflict of Interest Web Page

HHS Residual Standards of Conduct (45 CFR § 73)
The regulations at 5501 supercede most of the sections of the original HHS standards of conduct. The remaining sections are the "Residual Standards", for activities not covered by ethics regulations.

United States Constitution
See especially Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 regarding the "Emoluments Clause"

NOTE: As of 8/25/08, the website of the Office of Government Ethics (OGD)is down, and is expected to be down for an undetermined period. The following links to the OGE web site therefore are broken. Thanks

Conflict of Interest Statutes (United States Code) (Note:  § means Section)
The above link goes to the OGE web site, to the table of contents for all the statutes below. The links below go to each individual statute on the GPO website.
Regulations promulgated by the Office of Government Ethics (Government-wide) 
Regulations to implement the above laws. These first two links go to the full documents, ready to print. (All links go to OGE web site.)

The following links go to the OGE web site table of contents for each regulation:

Executive Order 12674 (4/12/89) as modified by Executive Order 12731 (10/17/90)
The original Executive Order outlining the Principles of Ethical Conduct for Federal Employees.  The modifications of the 1990 amendment are included in this document.

HHS Travel Manual (HHS web site, 200 pages, Word format)

For additional information, contact your IC's Deputy Ethics Counselor or Ethics Coordinator.


*NOTE: You must have the free Acrobat Reader software on your computer to review and print these forms or documents in pdf format. If you do not have the Reader software, you may download it below. Note that after you download the file, you must also install it. Please carefully read the instructions on the download screen and complete both steps.

Download Adobe ReaderDownload Adobe Acrobat Reader

Updated: 9/24/08