More than three years after it stopped requiring employees to ask permission to get second jobs, the Agriculture Department has reinstated the requirement for executives and other groups of employees.
The reinstated requirement, announced in the March 24 Federal Register, is aimed at making sure USDA employees don't violate ethics and conflict-of-interest rules by taking second jobs. The requirement applies to executives and other employees who are required to file financial disclosure reports each year. Employees who don't file financial disclosure reports do not have to seek prior approval to get second jobs.
"The former requirement for universal prior approval had been viewed as unnecessarily burdensome and intrusive, particularly in those instances in which the employee's outside employment posed little danger to the interests of USDA and its agencies," the department said in its announcement. But USDA said that employees who file financial disclosure reports hold either high-level positions or positions that have a direct effect on the interests of outside organizations. "Accordingly, prior approval of these employees' outside employment is warranted," the announcement said.
In addition, several other groups of USDA employees must now seek the department's go-ahead before taking second jobs:
- Farm Service Agency employees
- Food Safety and Inspection Service employees
- Lawyers in the USDA Office of the General Counsel
- Office of Inspector General employees