Outside Employment during a Lapse in Appropriations

Even if EPA experiences a lapse of appropriations, employees are still subject to all of the ethics laws and regulations, including the conflict of interest statutes and the Hatch Act.

As outlined in the EPA Supplemental Ethics regulation, the following types of outside employment require advance approval from an ethics official:

• Consulting services
• Practicing a profession
• Holding State or local public office
• Any subject matter that deals in significant part with the policies, programs or operations of EPA, or any matter to which you are currently assigned or to which you have been assigned in the previous year, or
• Providing services to an EPA contractor or subcontractor, the holder of an EPA assistance agreement or sub-agreement, or a firm that is regulated by your Region or Office

EXAMPLES THAT REQUIRE PRIOR APPROVAL: Real estate agent, volunteering or working as a lawyer or tax accountant, environmental consultant, executive coach (if you are a coach as part of your EPA duties).

To seek prior approval of the outside activity during the lapse of appropriations, you need to provide the following information to your ethics official:

• your name, title and grade;
• the nature of the outside activity, including a full description of the services to be performed and the amount of compensation expected;
• the name and business of the person or organization for which the work will be done (in cases of self-employment, indicate the type of services to be rendered and estimate the number of clients or customers anticipated during the next six months);
• the estimated time to be devoted to the activity;
• confirmation that the service will be performed entirely outside of normal duty hours (and an indication of whether you anticipate continuing this activity when the shutdown ends);
• a statement that no official duty time or Government property, resources, or facilities not available to the general public will be used in connection with the outside employment;
• the basis for compensation (e.g., fee, per diem, per annum, etc.);
• a statement that you have read, are familiar with, and will abide by the restrictions described in 5 CFR Part 2635 (Subpart H on “Outside Activities”) and Section 6401.103 (EPA’s Supplemental Regulations); and
• an identification of any EPA assistance agreements or contracts held by a person to or for whom services would be provided.

While you ordinarily have to notify your first level supervisor before seeking approval from the ethics official, you will not need to so during the shutdown. Instead, you may go directly to your own Deputy Ethics Official or Justina Fugh at ethics@epa.gov.

Even if your outside employment does not require prior approval, please remember the following:

• You cannot represent the interests of anyone else back to the United States, even during the lapse of appropriations;
• You cannot use any EPA equipment or resources in connection with the outside employment;
• If the outside employment continues after the lapse in appropriations ends, you still cannot use EPA equipment, time or resources in connection with the outside employment. There is no de minimis use of government equipment that applies to any compensated outside activity; and
• If you are required to file a financial disclosure report in 2024, then you will have to report the outside employment position (if applicable) on your next report covering calendar year 2023. In addition, if you gross over $1,000 in outside earned income in calendar year 2023, then you must also report the income on your report.

EXAMPLES THAT DO NOT REQUIRE PRIOR APPROVAL: working in retail sales, language tutor, substitute teacher, coffee shop barista, babysitter, caterer, bartender.