Overview

    The private financial interests and investments of Members and employees, as well as those of candidates who are seeking election to the House of Representatives, may present potential conflicts of interest with official duties.  The New York City Bar Association undertook a comprehensive study of Congressional ethics beginning in 1967.  The Bar commission’s study found that

[t]he most serious charge which can be made against a public official’s ethics is that he betrays the public’s trust in him by using the office to advance his own financial interests at the public’s expense. . . .  Much distrust of government flows from ambiguous circumstances where there is ground for suspicion that officials are promoting their own welfare rather than the public’s.¹ 

    The financial disclosure required of House Members, officers, senior employees, and candidates was instituted in part to address this concern. 

    In addition, all Members, officers, and employees are prohibited from improperly using their official positions for personal gain.  As a general matter, however, Members and employees need not divest themselves of assets upon assuming their positions, nor must Members disqualify themselves from voting on issues that generally affect their personal financial interests.  Instead, public financial disclosure provides a means of monitoring and deterring conflicts.

    To accomplish this disclosure, Members, officers, candidates, and certain employees must file annual Financial Disclosure Statements, summarizing financial information concerning themselves, their spouses, and dependent children.  Among other information, these statements must disclose outside compensation, investments and assets, and business transactions.

    This chapter is intended to provide only a basic overview of the financial disclosure requirements.  Each year, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct publishes comprehensive instruction booklets detailing the instructions for completing a Financial Disclosure Statement.  One booklet covers the instructions for Form A, which is used by current and terminating Members, officers, and employees, and the other is for Form B, which is used by candidates for the House and covered new House employees.  Copies of the current instruction booklets are available from the Standards Committee or the Legislative Resource Center.