TREASURY DIRECTIVE: 61-05
DATE: January 12, 2009
SUBJECT:
Designating Employment Status of
Advisory Committee Members
1. PURPOSE. This directive requires Treasury employees seeking to establish a new advisory committee, or seeking to appoint, renew, or invite an individual member to serve on a new or existing advisory committee to consult their ethics officials in order to ensure compliance with Executive Branch ethics statutes and regulations, and requires ethics officials to make determinations of the employment status of advisory committee members for ethics purposes.
2. SCOPE. This directive applies to Departmental Offices, to all Treasury bureaus, to the Office of Inspector General, and to the Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The authority of the Inspectors General is set forth in Section 3 of the Inspector General Act and the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act, and defined in Treasury Order 114-01 (OIG) and Treasury Order 115-01 (TIGTA), or successor orders. The provisions of this directive shall not be construed to interfere with that authority.
3. DEFINITIONS. For purposes of this directive only:
a. Advisory committee means any committee, board, commission, council, conference, panel, task force, or other similar group that is established by statute, or established or utilized by a Government official, for the purpose of obtaining advice or recommendations for the Government or on issues or policies within the scope of a Government official’s responsibilities. Advisory committees include, but are not limited to, committees governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (Pub L. 92-463, codified at 5 USC App.).
b. Bureau includes the Departmental Offices (DO), the Treasury bureaus, and the Offices of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).
c. Committee member is an individual who serves by appointment or invitation on an advisory committee or subcommittee.
d. The Designated Deciding Official (DDO) is the Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO) or his or her designee for DO, the Counsel to the IG and the Counsel to the TIGTA for those offices, and the Chief Counsel or his or her designee for each of the other bureaus.
e.
The Designated Federal Officer (DFO) is an
individual designated as such under the Federal Management Regulation, or is
the Treasury employee responsible for managing the appointments, renewals, or
invitations of individual members of a new or existing advisory committee.
f. A representative is a person who is specifically appointed to a committee to provide the point of view of nongovernmental entities or of a recognizable group of persons (e.g., an industry sector, labor unions, or environmental groups, etc.) who have interests in the subject matter under a committee’s charge.
g.
Special Government Employee means an officer or
employee of the Department who is retained, designated, appointed, or employed
to perform temporary duties, with or without compensation, for a period not to
exceed 130 days during any period of 365 consecutive days, either on a
full-time or intermittent basis. The
term does not include an advisory committee member who serves only as a representative
of an industry or other outside entity, or a member who is already a Federal
employee.
4. PROCEDURES.
1) Whether the prospective committee member will receive compensation other than travel expenses for his or her work on the committee;
2) How the prospective committee member was selected, including whether the prospective committee member was selected through an appointment process that used outside recommendations;
3) Whether the prospective committee member will act as a spokesperson for a recognizable nongovernmental group or stakeholder and, if so, what affiliations, experience, or commitments qualify him or her to do so; and
4) Whether the prospective committee member will be supervised by a Federal government employee.
1) The express language of the advisory committee’s enabling documents (e.g., charter);
2) Whether the prospective committee member will receive compensation for his or her work on the committee;
3) Whether the prospective committee member was selected through an appointment process that used outside recommendations;
4) Whether the prospective committee member will act as a spokesperson for a recognizable nongovernmental group or stakeholder; and
5) Whether
the prospective committee member will be supervised by a Federal government
employee.
5. REFERENCES
a. Treasury Directive 21-03, “Establishment and Management of Treasury Federal Advisory Committees.”
b. Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch (5 CFR Part 2635).
c. Office of Government Ethics Informal Advisory Opinion 04 x 9, Memorandum to Designated Agency Ethics Officials (2004).
d. Office
of Government Ethics Informal Advisory Opinion 05 x 4, Memorandum dated
e. Office of Government Ethics Informal Advisory Opinion 82 x 22, Members of Federal Advisory Committees and the Conflict of Interest Statutes (1982).
f. Federal
Advisory Committees: Additional Guidance Could Help Agencies Better Ensure
Committees’
g. Federal Management Regulation, (41 CFR Part 102-3).
h. Department
of the Treasury Rules of Conduct, (31
6. OFFICE OF PRIMARY INTEREST. Office of the General Counsel
/S/
Robert F. Hoyt
General Counsel