U.S. Office of Government Ethics
1201 New York Avenue, NW., Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005-3917



       					November 7, 2006
     					DO-06-034


AMENDED MEMORANDUM

TO:		Designated Agency Ethics Officials

FROM: 		Marilyn L. Glynn
		General Counsel

SUBJECT:  	Amended Memorandum on Provisions Regarding 
       		Soliciting Gifts of Travel

 
	The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) issued a 
DAEOgram on March 31, 2006 (DO-06-008) that was intended to 
address the narrow question of whether it ever is 
permissible for an employee to solicit a gift of travel, 
whether personal or official.  We also discussed, however, 
a few points about the applicable rules on accepting 
unsolicited gifts of travel.  It has come to our attention 
that, by doing so, we inadvertently may have created the 
impression that we intended the memorandum to be a 
comprehensive discussion of travel reimbursement generally.  
Because this was not our intention, and because the 
March 31, 2006 memorandum contained citation errors, we are 
issuing this amended memorandum to discuss only the issue 
of soliciting gifts of travel.

	The Standards of Ethical Conduct for Executive Branch 
Employees (Standards) govern the solicitation and 
acceptance of personal gifts, including gifts of personal 
(unofficial) travel.  Generally, a Federal employee may 
not, in a personal capacity, accept gifts from "prohibited 
sources," or gifts given because of his official position.  
Prohibited gift sources include persons and entities that 
seek official action by the employee’s agency, do business 
or seek to do business with that agency, are regulated by 
that agency, or have interests that can be substantially 
affected by the employee’s official activities (as well as 
any organization the majority of whose members are 
prohibited sources).  Although there are several exceptions 
to this general rule, the gift exceptions may never be used 
"to solicit or coerce the offering of a gift,” including a 
gift of personal travel, from a prohibited source.  
5 C.F.R. § 2635.202(c)(2).

	Gifts of official travel are not covered by the 
Standards because they are gifts to the agency rather than 
to the traveling employee.  Gifts of official travel are 
regulated either under the authority of the accepting 
agency’s gift-acceptance statute or under other appropriate 
statutory authority.  Thus, the question whether a gift of 
official travel properly may be solicited turns on the 
language of the particular gift acceptance authority.  
Absent appropriate statutory authority, an employee of that 
agency may not solicit gifts of official travel.[1]  

	Please feel free to share this memorandum with any 
agency employee who is involved in the process of planning, 
approving, or accepting reimbursement for official travel. 
	
___________
 
 [1] Although another statutory authority, 31 U.S.C. § 1353, 
authorizes executive branch agencies to accept travel gifts 
from non-Federal sources for an employee to attend meetings 
and other similar functions, the General Services Administration’s 
implementing regulations provide that travel gifts (including 
upgrades) accepted pursuant to this statute may not be solicited.  
See 41 C.F.R. § 304-3.5.