January 16, 2025
David Huitema, Director
On Monday, our nation will gather for the swearing in of the new President. With a new President comes a new administration, and new officials in leadership roles throughout many executive branch departments and agencies. In turn, each will take the oath office, each will promise to defend the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and to faithfully discharge the duties of their office. They will make the same promise as each of the public servants working in their agencies. It is a promise that binds all federal employees and officials to respect the law and serve the nation.
The ethics rules reinforce this commitment to the public good. To encourage incoming leaders to reflect upon the promise they will make, remember their own ethics obligations, and support ethics compliance in their agencies, I am continuing the practice of previous OGE directors, and sending a personal letter to each Senate-confirmed Presidential appointee upon their confirmation by the Senate. I encourage you to read the text of those letters below.
Congratulations and welcome to service in the Executive Branch of the United States Government.
We share the honor of taking the oath of office and of committing ourselves to serving the American people. I wish you nothing but success in your new role.
I encourage you to always consider the oath you have taken as you carry out your important duties, and to set an exemplary standard in terms of your personal compliance with all ethics requirements. You will meet with your Agency’s ethics officials as you begin your service, and they are available to advise and assist you throughout your appointment. Your commitment to ethics will bolster your success as a leader.
While we each took our oath of office individually, with that oath we joined a community of public servants. One of our most important responsibilities as leaders is to ensure that the public servants we lead understand and are fully committed to our singular duty: to serve the public. With this in mind, I encourage you to regularly remind your team of this duty; to underscore the importance of ethics compliance more generally; to reiterate that your Agency has dedicated and well-supported ethics officials from whom they can seek counsel, as needed, to help with the tough issues; and to do what you can to foster a strong culture of integrity.
The trust of the American people is the currency that makes our experiment in self-government possible. It is our duty to protect and grow that trust. I wish you great success in your service to the American people.