Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
Newsgroups: americast.wpost
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: Disclosure Rules May Supplement Existing Law; Forms for Financial Data Are Now
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 04:36:11 EST
Message-ID: <42.1992Nov17.043611@AmeriCast.com>

Disclosure Rules May Supplement Existing Law; Forms for Financial
Data Are Now Being Drafted<By Al Kamen<Washington Post Staff
Writer=

Clinton transition director Warren M. Christopher has boasted
that the code of ethics for this presidential transition is "by
far the strongest, toughest rules ever put forward."

There are new rules for transition staff, such as the six-month
ban on lobbying, and an extension of existing prohibitions
against using information gathered during the transition for per-
sonal gain.

One key element, the financial disclosure forms that Christopher
says will ensure no conflicts of interest for transition staff
members, is still in the drafting stage, a transition official
said yesterday. But the disclosure forms may "end up looking a
lot like the forms" used during the Reagan-Bush transition.  How-
ever the forms turn out, some transition staff members - those
who will report to President-elect Clinton on government depart-
ments and agencies - already are required to disclose some em-
ployment information under a 1988 law called the Presidential
Transition Effectiveness Act.

Under that law, which gives Clinton $3.5 million to spend on
transition - as well as $1.5 million to Bush so he can move out -
Clinton must disclose "to the public" the names and most recent
jobs of everyone who works on a transition team reviewing the
functions of government agencies, such as the State Department or
the Environmental Protection Agency.

The law covers all "full-time or part-time, public or private, or
volunteer" team members, even if they do not receive a dime of
federal money.

Transition team members who are volunteers must disclose publicly
"the sources of funding which support the transition activities
of each transition team member" before they show up at any agen-
cy.  The Clinton transition is allowed to raise money to supple-
ment the federal money, but all funds spent must be accounted for
and no more than $5,000 may be accepted from a single source.

Paul Light, a University of Minnesota professor who helped draft
the law, said the reporting provisions were inserted because dur-
ing the Reagan transition in his first term, "huge amounts were
raised" and "no one had any idea where it came from and no idea
where it went."

The law does not require transition team members to fill out full
financial disclosure forms used for government employment, list-
ing income, assets and liabilities for staff members and spouses.
Those forms are "unbelievably complex," Light said, and it was
agreed that "you don't want to have transition people hire ac-
countants and lawyers to fill out the forms." The $3.5 million
budget may seem substantial, but Clinton's staff is already
tightening the belt. President Bush's offer of a military plane
to ferry Clinton to Washington on Wednesday is getting a friendly
"thanks but no thanks," according to transition press secretary
Dee Dee Myers. That's because it was learned that the Clinton
contingent could fly cheaper on its campaign charter plane, a
Boeing 727 known as "Air Elvis," than on the military plane, she
said.

Bush's invitation to the Clintons to stay at Blair House, often
used by visiting foreign dignataries, also was turned down for
the time being, Myers said, in favor of having the Clintons stay
at the nearby Hay-Adams Hotel. "We just felt it was easier to
stay there to keep everyone together," she said, although that
plan may change if Clinton becomes a frequent visitor to Washing-
ton.<02:33 11-17C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)