any other comparable group requesting his or her assistance.

(d) Special rules for full-time Presidential appointees. If you are a Presidential appointee:

(1) You may not hold office in or act for any institution that has or is seeking NSF awards without the approval of the National Science Board.

(2) You must not engage in any other business, vocation, or employment while serving in the Presidential position.

It does not include investment income (dividends, interest, or the like). It does not include reimbursement for meals, lodging, travel, or other expenses. And it does not include prizes or awards, even if an award carries an obligation to give lectures.

§ 683.31 Compensation.

(a) Basic restrictions on outside compensation. Three basic rules restrict compensation (not including reimbursement of expenses) you can accept from sources other than your Federal salary:

(1) No extra compensation for official duties. You must not seek or accept any contribution or supplement to your Government salary for doing any part of your NSF job.

(2) No compensation out of any Federal award. You must not seek or accept any compensation out of funds that come wholly or partly from a Federal award.

(3) No compensation in connection with any matter involving the Government. You must not seek or accept any compensation for services by you or anyone else in connection with any proposal, project, or other matter in which the United States is a party or has a direct interest.

BE CAREFUL: Breaking any of these rules would be a Federal crime.

(b) Pensions and other employee benefits. These rules do not preclude you from continuing to participate in a bona fide pension or other employee benefit plan maintained by a former employer.

(c) Wording and terms. The wording of these restrictions has been simplified here substantially from the wording of the underlying statutes, so that they will be easier to understand. In

(a) Honoraria on official duty. You must not accept any honoraria for speeches, papers, lectures, or the like delivered in the course of your official duties. However, if declining an honorarium would appear embarrassing or insulting to the offeror, particularly one from another country, you may accept the honorarium on behalf of the Foundation and deposit it into a special trust fund account or into the Treasury. Under no circumstances may you accept an honorarium for yourself for acts performed in your official capacity.

(b) Honoraria-while not on official duty. You may accept honoraria for speeches, papers, or lectures delivered while you are not on official duty, subject to general limits on outside employment described in § 683.30, general restrictions on receipt of compensation described in § 683.31, and prohibitions against misuse of inside information described in § 683.34. You will be disqualified for one year from handling proposals and other award-related applications that involve the interests of the person or institution from which you received any honorarium. See § 681.21 of this chapter. Moreover, the law restricts the amounts of honoraria you may accept:

(1) You must not accept an honorarium of more than $2,000 for any speech, paper, lecture, or the like (excluding reimbursements for meals, lodging, and travel).

(2) If you are a Presidential employee, honoraria count toward the fifteen-percent limit on your outside income. See § 683.30(d)(3).

§ 683.33 Reimbursements and services in kind.

(a) For official travel. You may not accept money from private sources to reimburse you for expenses incurred during travel on official NSF business, though private sources may reimburse the NSF for your expenses. You may accept meals, lodging, or travel tickets

(not money) from private sources when you are traveling on official NSF business, but not if they would be paid for out of funds that come wholly or partly from an NSF award. There is one exception to the reservation about funds that come from an NSF award: if you are attending a conference, symposium, or other meeting funded by the NSF, you may accept meals and lodging (but NOT travel tickets) if they are offered to everyone attending the meeting and alternate arrangements for meals and lodging are unavailable or would cause an unusual inconvenience. If you do accept meals or lodging while on official travel, your per diem must be reduced accordingly.

(b) For travel, etc. when not on duty. If you are on leave, not representing the Foundation, and not expected primarily to discuss NSF policy or procedures, these restrictions do not apply. However, you may not accept services in kind or reimbursement for travel expenses if the sources would be funds that come wholly or partly from an NSF award EXCEPT as provided for rotators in § 682.23(c).

§ 683.34 Misuse of inside information or Government property.

(a) No misuse of inside information. If your Government job gives you access to information not generally available to the public, you must not use that information for your private benefit or make it available for the private benefit of any other person or institution.

(b) Consulting, lecturing, etc. about the NSF. You must not receive anything of monetary value for consulting, lecturing, writing, or public discussion that concerns the responsibilities, the programs, or the operations of the NSF or that draws on official information or ideas not generally available to the public.

(c) Waivers. The Director, the Deputy Director, or an assistant director may waive application of these rules and authorize use of non-public information in the public interest. Any such authorization must be in writing. Consult an ethics counselor in the Office of the General Counsel.

(d) Private use of public property or services. You must not use Government property or services for your private benefit or for the private benefit of others, except as your normal public duties benefit particular members of the public in intended ways.

§ 683.35 Participation in NSF-supported conferences and workshops.

You may participate in a conference, workshop, or similar event supported by NSF funds, provided you do not receive any compensation, honorarium, or the like for your participation. You may not serve as an organizer or director of such an NSF-supported event, unless its purpose is to plan, assess, or publicize NSF programs. Nor, ordinarily, should you chair a session or give a paper except to describe NSF programs or NSF needs. You may discuss arrangements with the organizers or directors as long as you do not use the influence that derives from your NSF position to pressure them.

§ 683.36 Gifts, favors, loans, prizes, and awards.

(a) Gifts and favors generally. You may not directly or indirectly solicit or accept a gift, a favor, or a loan from any person or organization that has or is seeking NSF awards, that has other interests potentially affected by what you do in your NSF job, or that may be trying to affect your official actions. (You may, however, accept promotional things of trivial value such as pens, pencils, note pads, and calendars.)

(b) Meals or entertainment. By extension, you should ordinarily avoid accepting meals or entertainment from such persons or organizations if you can avoid doing so within the reasonable bounds of politeness. You may, however, occasionally accept a modest meal offered as a courtesy or convenience during a site visit or a luncheon or dinner meeting.

(c) Prizes and awards. The restrictions in paragraph (a) of this section do not prevent you from accepting a prize or award for scientific or other public achievement given by a university, scientific society, or other organization. However, you may accept any

thing of value that accompanies the prize or award only if it is not paid for out of funds that come wholly or partly from an NSF award. You will be disqualified for one year from handling proposals and other award-related applications that involve the interests of the person or institution from which you received any such prize or award. See § 681.21 of this chapter.

(d) From foreign governments. You may not accept a gift or decoration from a foreign government except one of "minimal value". Minimal value means retail value in the United States of $140 or less. If the gift is of more than minimal value you may accept it only if not accepting it would be likely to cause offense or embarrassment. Even then, any gift of more than minimal value becomes the property of the United States. Consult an ethics counselor for help in depositing the gift with the State Department.

Subpart D-Political Activity
(Hatch Act)

§ 683.40 Introduction; who's covered.

(a) Hatch Act. In order to ensure that day-to-day government actions (such as award of grants) are not affected by political motives and in order to preserve a nonpolitical civil service that is selected on merit, not on political considerations, the law restricts the involvement of Federal civil service employees with partisan politics. These restrictions derive from a law popularly known as "the Hatch Act".

(b) Summary of Hatch Act restrictions. (1) You may not run for public or party office, except in nonpartisan elections and certain local elections. See § 683.42(a).

(2) You may not participate in election campaigning, except in nonpartisan elections and certain local elections. See § 683.42(c).

(3) You may not take an active part in leading or managing a political party. See § 683.43.

(4) You must not use your official authority or influence for political purposes. See § 683.44.

(c) Presidential appointees. You are subject to these restrictions if you are an NSF employee, unless you are a Presidential appointee whose appoint

ment was subject to Senate confirmation. If you are such a Presidential appointee, you are subject only to the restrictions decribed in § 683.44. You need not be concerned with the rest of this Subpart except as it affects your colleagues and subordinates.

(d) Employee coverage. If you are subject to the "Hatch Act" restrictions, they apply even while you are on leave while you are on detail or assignment to a non-Federal post. They apply even if you work for the Government only part-time. If you work for the Government as a temporary employee, the restrictions apply as long as your temporary employment lasts. If you work for the Government as an intermittent employee, the restrictions apply only while you are in the active-duty status, but that includes the entire 24 hours of any day on which you work for the Government at all. (If in doubt about the employment category to which you belong, check with Personnel.)

(e) Political party. Any political party or political club, national or state, is a "political party" under this Subpart, except where provisions specifically refer to a "national political party".

§ 683.41 Basic political rights unaffected.

The Hatch Act restrictions do not affect your basic political rights. Specifically:

(a) You may register and vote as you choose in any election.

(b) You may contribute to a political party or candidate, though you may not be pressured to do so because of your Federal employment.

(c) You may be a member of a political party or other political organization. You may attend party meetings and vote on issues. You may not, however, be involved in managing or leading the organization. See § 683.43.

(d) You may write, call, or visit any Federal, state, or local political official (including, for example, your Congressman) to express your views on any political issue and on how the official should vote or act on the issue.

(e) You may sign political petitions, including nominating petitions, but

you may not circulate such petitions for others to sign. See § 683.42(d)(2).

§ 683.42 Candidacy and campaigns.

(a) Running for office. You may not run for nomination or election to public office. There are two exceptions:

(1) You may run in an election in which no candidate runs as representing any national political party. (Currently, this means the Democratic or Republican party, but if another party wins electoral votes in a Presidential election, that could change.)

(2) You may run for office in most of the local political jurisdictions in the Washington, D.C. area if you run as an independent not representing any political party, national or otherwise. (To be sure that your jurisdiction is among those in which this is permitted, check with an Ethics Counselor in the Office of the General Counsel.)

(b) No partisan campaigning. You may not campaign for or against a political party or candidate in an election for public office or in an election for party office. Essentially the same two exceptions apply:

(1) You may campaign for a candidate in an election in which no candidate runs as representing any national political party.

(2) If you could be an independent candidate in a local election described in (a)(2) of this section, you may campaign for an independent candidate in such an election.

You may not campaign for any side of a question or issue that is specifically identified with a political party.

(c) What constitutes campaigning. You "campaign" when you:

(1) Actively participate in management of a campaign;

(2) Initiate nominating petitions or canvass for signatures on nominating petitions;

(3) Endorse or oppose a candidate or a position through political advertisements, broadcasts, campaign literature, or the like;

(4) Speak at rallies, candidate nights, party caucuses, or other political gatherings;

(5) Solicit campaign contributions, promote political dinners or similar events, sell tickets for such events, or

otherwise participate in campaign fundraising;

(6) Help to handle campaign fi

nances;

(7) Distribute campaign material; (8) Host a coffee, cocktail party, or buffet for a candidate or a candidate's surrogate;

(9) Drive voters to the polls;

(10) Work at the polls as a checker, challenger, pollwatcher, or the like, or (11) Do any other work on behalf of a candidate.

(d) Nonpartisan election duties. In connection with an election, you may perform nonpartisan duties provided for by law as an election clerk, judge, or the like.

to nonelective

(e) Appointment office. You may accept appointment to nonelective public office, subject to the same limits that apply to any other outside employment. See Subpart C, §§ 683.30-683.36.

§ 683.43 Party activities.

You may not take an active part in leading or managing a political party. You do that when you:

(a) Participate in organizing or reorganizing it;

(b) Serve as a party officer or as a member of a national, state, or local party committee (or stand as a candidate for such a position);

(c) Participate in party fundraising or in handling party finances;

(d) Serve as a delegate, alternate, or proxy to a party convention (though you may attend such a convention); or (e) Take an active part in conducting or running a meeting, rally, fund-raising function, convention, other party gathering (though you may attend such a gathering).

or

§ 683.44 Political use of official authority or influence.

You must not use your official authority or influence for political purposes. Thus:

(a) You must not use your official position or authority to interfere with an election or to affect the result of an election.

(b) You must not solicit political contributions from other Federal employees, allow your name to appear on

to work for the NSF 130 days a year or less is a "special Government employee." The rules in this Subpart apply to you only if you are such a "special employee". Other employees should see Parts 680 through 683 of the NSF conflict-of-interests regulations.

(b) Days worked. If you have any uncertainty about how many days you work or are expected to work for the NSF, consult an ethics counselor in the Office of the General Counsel. There are specific rules for counting the days, and the rules that apply while you are still employed differ somewhat from those that apply afterward.

§ 684.11 Summary of rules for "special employees".

(a) This section summarizes the principal conflicts requirements that you are expected to observe as an NSF "special employee". It references the subsequent provisions of this subpart in which these requirements are elaborated. You are encouraged to read as well §§ 680.10 and 680.12, which introduce the NSF conflict-of-interests regulations and explain their purposes. Members of the National Science Board are committed to observe, besides the requirements summarized here, the special rules of the Board for its members. See Subpart B, §§ 684.20684.22.

(b) NSF work on proposals and awards of others. (1) If you serve on a panel that reviews proposals or otherwise serve as a peer reviewer, you will be given instructions designed to deal with any conflict of interests you may have.

(2) If you participate in action on proposals and awards as a National Science Board member, see § 684.21.

(3) If you should otherwise become involved with the handling of a proposal of other award-related application you should follow the same rules and procedures on conflicts or potential conflicts in handling proposals and awards as regular NSF employees. They are set out in Part 681 of the NSF conflicts regulations, §§ 681.20681.26.

(c) Financial disclosure (§ 684.12). (1) If you are compensated at a rate at