2006 Ethics Training for filers of Public Financial Disclosure Reports

1. 2006 Ethics Training for filers of Public Financial Disclosure Reports

2. Pat Carney, patrick.carney@fcc.gov Kay Richman, kay.richman@fcc.gov Sharon Kelley, sharon.kelley@fcc.gov Doug Sandifer, douglas.sandifer@fcc.gov Jane Halprin, jane.halprin@fcc.gov Lauren Northrop, lauren.northrop@fcc.gov All: 418-1720

3. Dollars & Sense Relationships Outside Activities Movin’ On Before & After 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4

4. Dollars & Sense - Question 1 1. The prohibition, in section 4(b) of the Communications Act, on owning stock in entities that are significantly regulated by the Commission applies to – • All Commission employees; • Minor children of Commission employees; • Spouses of Commission employees; or • (d) All of the above. Answer: (a), all Commission employees. Back

5. Dollars and Sense - Question 2 2. The disqualification requirements of 18 U.S.C. § 208 bar Commission employees from participating officially in matters that will affect their own the financial interests or the financial interests of – • Their spouses and minor children; • Their general partners; • Outside organizations or entities they serve as officer, director, trustee, general partner or employee; or • (d) All of the Above. Answer: (d), all of the above. Back

6. Dollars and Sense - Question 3 3. Without consulting you, your spouse purchases in your name (1) a sector fund the holdings of which are concentrated in the telecommunications area (i.e., Commission regulatees), (2) a sector fund that concentrates in the pharmaceutical industry but includes some telecommunications holdings, and (3) a diversified mutual fund that includes some telecommunications holdings. You will need to— • Divest all three funds; • Divest the two sector funds only; or • (c) Divest only the telecommunications sector fund. Answer: (c), divest only the telecommunications sector fund. Back

7. Dollars and Sense - Question 4 4. If you are working on a rulemaking that will affect the financial interests of NBZ, a Commission regulatee, and your Great Aunt Gertrude dies, leaving you $6,000 worth of stock in NBZ, you-- • Need not be concerned because you have 90 days to divest interests in entities that are “prohibited interests” under section 4(b) of the Communications Act; • (b) Need not be concerned because the de minimis exemptions to the prohibition of 18 U.S.C. § 208 apply, allowing you to continue your participation in the rulemaking; • (c) Both (a) and (b); • (d) Should immediately cease all work on the rulemaking and call an ethics advisor because the section 208 de minimis exemptions do not apply to interests in entities that are significantly regulated by the Commission. Answer: (d), stop working on the matter and call for help. Your continued work would put you in violation of section 208. Back

8. Relationships - Question 1 1. Your spouse, a renowned anti-trust attorney, and her law firm were just hired to work on the proposed AB / YZ merger, which is a matter you have been working on as an FCC official. If you and your spouse both work on the matter, you could— • Get fired from the Commission; • (b) Have to pay a civil fine of up to $50,000; • (c) End up in jail; or • (d) All of the above. Answer: (d), all of the above. Back

9. Relationships - Question 2 2. You serve as Chief for a Commission bureau that has primary responsibility for regulating providers of certain telecommunications services, chief among them Company A. Your domestic partner informs you that he has been asked to interview for a very senior position at Company A that would put him in charge of Company A’s government – including FCC-regulated -- affairs. You should-- (a) Be thrilled for him because, after all, under 18 USC 208, the primary conflict of interest statute, the interests of a spouse are attributed to an employee but the interests of a domestic partner are not; (b) Be careful not to act in adjudicatory-type matters affecting Company A because of possible concerns about your impartiality, assuming he takes the position; or (c) Be concerned about whether you will be able to do the job for which you were hired, given the likely extent to which you will need to recuse, assuming he takes the position. Answer: (c), be concerned about whether you will be able to do your job. Back

10. Relationships - Question 3 3. Your sister, with whom you have a close relationship, has just taken a job in the human resources office of a profitable and well-established conglomerate. For months now, you have been supervising work on a complaint against the conglomerate. What will the ethics advisors tell you if you seek their advice? • You need not recuse from this matter; • You must recuse from this matter; • If you want to be successful at the Commission, you should urge your sister to find other employment. • (d) Both (b) and (c) Answer: (a), you need not recuse from this matter. Back

11. Relationships - Question 4 4. Since June, when he moved to DC and began looking for his first post-college job, you’ve been allowing a friend’s son to live in your house rent-free. Also since June, you’ve been involved officially in Commission litigation involving Company X. You rarely see your friend’s son but yesterday you and he got into a conversation about investments. He mentioned that he owns stock in Company X, which clearly has a financial interest in how the litigation is resolved. What should you do? • Show the young man to the door; • Immediately recuse yourself from the litigation and tell your boss you are conflicted out so he’ll have to assign the matter to someone else; • (c) Stop working on the matter while you confer with your boss and the ethics staff. Answer: (c), stop working on the matter while you confer with your boss and the ethics staff. Back

12. Outside Activities - Question 1 1. On her own time and without using any Commission resources or nonpublic information, a non-supervisory GS-13 member of your staff has written an article on the FCC’s process for auctioning spectrum. In passing, she mentions that a respected journal has agreed to publish the article and that, while she won’t be paid anything for the article, she thinks it may help her get an academic job one day. The Commission— • Can bar her from publishing the article because it concerns the programs and policies of the Commission; • Can bar her from publishing the article if it is critical of the Commission; • Can bar her from publishing the article because of the theoretical possibility that she might, in the future, be assigned to work on auction procedures and someone might think she has pre-judged auction-related issues; • All of the above; or • (e) None of the above. Answer: (e), none of the above. Back

13. Outside Activities - Question 2 2. A GS-15 member of your staff tells you that she plans, in her private capacity, to give a talk at the Center for Telecom Policy in New York City on current publicly-disseminated FCC policies. You will be correct if you remind her that she is prohibited from accepting from the Center— • A $100 honorarium for her talk; • (b) Travel expenses (air fare, meals, and lodging) to NYC; • (c) A videotape of her speech; or • (d) All of the above. Answer: (a), a $100 honorarium for her talk. Back

14. Outside Activities - Question 3 3. Your elderly parents’ home was decimated by a tornado that recently struck Oklahoma and they have asked you to help them obtain federal assistance. Your communications with federal agencies on behalf of your parents is-- • Permissible, provided you don’t contact the FCC on their behalf; • Permissible, because of the exception to 18 USC 205 that allows for representation of one’s parents before the Government; • Permissible, with prior approval; or • (d) Not permissible under any circumstances, given the broad reach of 18 USC 205. Answer: (c), permissible with prior approval. Back

15. Outside Activities - Question 4 4. In your free time, you want to get involved in an environmental organization that lobbies federal agencies and departments. Which of the following is true? • You may not provide advice to the organization on how best to formulate arguments to be presented to other federal agencies by someone else; • You may not serve as an officer because the organization represents before the government; • You may not, under any circumstances, identify yourself as an FCC employee in the course of your dealings with the organization. • All of the above; or • (e) None of the above. Answer: (e), none of the above. Back

16. Movin’ On - Question 1 1. Which of the following will trigger a requirement that you recuse from the investigation you’ve been working on of Company Z? • An agent of Company Z sends you an unsolicited e-mail about possible employment with the Company; • You contact someone at Company Z about possible employment, leaving a voice-mail message; • You engage in employment discussions with Company Z; or • (d) All of the above. Answer: (d), all of the above. Back

17. Movin’ On - Question 2 2. You are supervising the work on a rulemaking that will affect the wireline industry, including companies A, B, and C, when you decide it’s time to move on to greener pastures. You will need to recuse from the rulemaking as soon as-- • You send out resumes with cover letters to companies A, B, and C; • (b) You ask a friend who happens to work at telcom Law Firm XYZ, where you’ve made it clear you have no interest in working, if he knows of any firms that are looking for people with your experience; • (c) An official at Company A calls to ask you to come in for an interview; • (d) All of the above; or • (e) None of the above. Answer: (c), as soon as an official at Company A calls you to come in for an interview. Back

18. Movin’ On - Question 3 3. You’re beginning to receive unsolicited employment contacts from prospective employers, but you’re just not ready to go. You don’t want to be rude, but you also don’t want to be forced into recusing from the matters you attend to each day. Watch out, because you will trigger a recusal requirement if you say to a firm with interests in a matter that you are working on — • The ethics rules don’t permit me to discuss possible employment with you while I’m working on your contract/merger/case/etc. • All my time and attention right now are devoted to my Commission job, and I am not in a position to discuss employment; • I am not planning on leaving the Commission in the near future but I will keep you in mind in case I ever change my mind; • (d) I cannot discuss future employment while I’m working on your contract/merger/case/etc., but let’s talk when this work is completed. Answer: (d), I cannot discuss future employment while I’m working on your contract/merger/case/etc., but let’s talk when this work is completed. Back

19. Movin’ On - Question 4 4. You are preparing for a meeting on a very sensitive adjudicatory-type matter to which Company DEF is a party when your spouse calls to share with you the exciting news that DEF has approached him about a position with the Company. You should – • Go to the meeting, but disclose the possible conflict before addressing the merits of the matter; • Stop working on the matter and call the ethics staff for guidance; • Relax because the recusal rules relating to “seeking employment” address only job-seeking by Commission employees, not their spouses; or • (d) Relax because no one will question your impartiality just because of your spouse’s employment contacts with DEF. Answer: (b), stop working on the matter and call the ethics staff for guidance. Back

20. Before and After the Commission - Question 1 1. Before coming to work at the FCC, you worked on comments to the Commission on behalf of a former employer in response to an FCC NPRM that would have industry-wide effect. You should assume— • That you are barred from working on the rulemaking now, on behalf of the Commission; • That you may work on the rulemaking now, because it is not an adjudicatory-type matter; • That you may work on the rulemaking if more than one year has elapsed since your participation; or • (d) That you may work on the rulemaking if more than five years have elapsed since your prior participation. Answer: (a), assume you are barred from working on the rulemaking now. Back

21. Before and After the Commission - Question 2 2. Before coming to work at the FCC twelve months ago, you worked at a firm that is now a party to (or representing a party to) an enforcement action that has just come before you. While at the firm you did not participate in any way in this matter. Indeed, you could not have, because it is a new matter that only originated after you joined the Commission. You will probably – • Need to recuse because your former firm is involved in this adjudicatory-type action; • Need to recuse because the firm you worked for within the last two years is involved in this adjudicatory-type matter • Not need to recuse because this is a new matter that you never worked on before on behalf of anyone else; or • (d) Not need to recuse because a year has elapsed since you worked for the firm that is involved in the action. Answer: (d), probably will not need to recuse because a year has elapsed since you worked for the firm involved in the action. Back

22. Before and After the Commission - Question 3 3. While working at the Commission as a GS-15 employee, you signed off on a proposed rulemaking that was drafted by your subordinates (your total reviewing time: 1 hour). Now, having left the Commission, you’ve been approached by a prospective client who wants you to submit comments on the rulemaking, taking the position advocated by the client, and to sign your name to them. Which of the following are true? • Even though you only spent one hour on the matter, you clearly participated “personally and substantially” for purposes of the post-employment statute; • Notwithstanding your personal and substantial participation in this matter, section 207(a)(1), the permanent bar on representing back to the Government will not apply because this is not a party-specific matter; • Notwithstanding the participation of your subordinates, the two year bar on representing back to the Government -- on matters that were pending under your official supervision during your last year of Government service -- will not apply because this is not a party-specific matter; • Even if legal, your representation on this matter within a short time after leaving the Commission could generate adverse press for yourself, your new employer, and your new client; • (e) All of the above. Answer: (e), all of the above. Back

23. Before and After the Commission - Question 4 4. You retire from the Commission as an SES employee in May 2006. In September, TelCom asks you to undertake a consulting job that would require you to directly communicate to the Commission over the next several months – in person and in writing – in an attempt to influence the Commission on a policy matter that will have industry-wide applicability. The policy matter is entirely new, having arisen after you left the Commission. You neither worked on it during your tenure at the Commision; nor was it pending under your official responsibility. Under these circumstances -- • You may take the job, because the matter that you would represent on is not a specific party matter; • (b) You may take the job, because you did not work on it at the Commission and it was not pending under your official responsibility; • (a) and (b); • (d) You could be fined or imprisoned or both if you undertake the representation. Answer: (d), you could be fined, imprisoned, or both. Back