February 17, 2000
                                           DO-00-005 

MEMORANDUM

TO:       Designated Agency Ethics Officials, General Counsels and 
          Inspectors General

FROM:     Stephen D. Potts
          Director

SUBJECT:  Training Regulation Interim Amendments  


     On February 14, 2000, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE)
published in the Federal Register an interim rule amending the
"Executive Agency Ethics Training Programs" (Training Regulation)
in Subpart G of 5 C.F.R. part 2638.  See 65 Federal
Register 7275-7281 (February 14, 2000).  This interim regulation
will become effective on March 15, 2000.

     The regulation addresses the comments OGE received regarding
two changes made by a previous interim Training Regulation
published on March 12, 1997.  See 62 Federal Register 11307-11314. 
The amendments clarify that a qualified instructor need not be
physically present at the training site and that agencies may
provide certain employees with verbal training once every three
years.  The new interim rule also rewrites the Training Regulation
in plain language.  Federal agencies are required under Executive
Order 12866 to write all new rules in plain language.  Although the
Training Regulation was published before the effective date of that
Executive order, OGE has decided that the rule would be improved if
rewritten in plain language. 

     A complete discussion of the changes to the Training
Regulation may be found in the preamble of the interim rule as
published in the Federal Register.  Comments on both the plain
language revision of the interim Training Regulation and its
substantive provisions are invited and are due on or before May 15,
2000.  In particular, we invite comments about what types of
computer-based training agencies have used to satisfy the verbal
training requirement, and how agencies have tracked employees'
usage of such programs.  OGE has received questions regarding
various methods of computer-based training and we would like to
encourage an ongoing dialogue between agencies and OGE to improve
the effectiveness of the Training Regulation.

     The complete text to the Interim Amendments of the Training
Regulation, including the preamble and revised regulatory text, as
published in the Federal Register on February 14, 2000, may be
viewed on OGE's website: www.usoge.gov.