August 22, 2014
by Walter M. Shaub, Jr.
Excitement is building for the first National Government Ethics Summit, which OGE will host in September. Registration has closed, but I am pleased to invite you to participate in much of the Summit virtually.
This Summit is designed to strengthen the executive branch ethics program by providing the members of our government ethics community with opportunities to deepen their knowledge of the ethics rules, share lessons learned through extensive practical experience, listen to viewpoints from outside government, and build connections with ethics officials who can lend a hand in resolving even the most complex ethics issue. Toward these ends, we are bringing together leaders from the executive branch, representatives from the legislative and judicial branches, members of the press, advocates from good government groups, academics, officials from state and local governments, and members of the international community.
Our approach to this Summit is an innovative departure from ethics conferences of the past. We are convening the Summit at local federal facilities in the Washington, D.C. area. Holding the Summit locally affords us the flexibility to schedule seven full days of presentations non-consecutively over the month of September without disrupting the important work of agency ethics offices. By using only federal facilities – thanks to our partner agencies – we avoid costs associated with renting a venue and traveling to a remote location. We are leveraging technology for streaming video in order to open many presentations to ethics officials outside the local area and interested members of the public. We are also delivering several additional sessions solely via streaming video on other dates in September.
During this month of ethics education and collaboration, you can view many of our sessions as they happen on our YouTube and Google+ pages. You can share your thoughts through social media by using the hashtag #EthicsSummit, and you can find timely updates and commentary right here on OGE.gov.
I look forward to sharing more about the Summit with you throughout September. I hope you will join the conversation as we work to protect our government from conflicts of interest.
We owe special thanks to a collection of federal agencies that have signaled their strong commitment to government ethics by becoming cosponsors of this exciting event: the Federal Housing Finance Agency; the National Institute on Aging; National Institutes of Health; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation; and the Transportation Security Administration.