Honoraria Ban: Congressional Coup -- Workers' Burden.

摘要

The honoraria ban, passed as part of The Ethics Reform Act of 1989, prohibited federal employees from accepting payment for any appearance, speech or article, no matter the topic. The ban applied to all employees, regardless of rank or pay grade, and included a 25% pay raise for Members of Congress, the Federal Judiciary, and senior Executive Branch officials. Congress, in passing this bill, was able to stem a tide of bad publicity from its own practices of honoraria acceptance while suffering no financial burden. Rank-and-file employees received no pay raise and many were forced to give up significant sources of income. The Office of Government Ethics implemented the ban for the Executive Branch and turned it into an overly-complex rule. The U.S. Supreme Court found that the ban violated the First Amendment, but only gave relief to the parties before the Court, a class of government employees, GS-15 and below. This left open questions of applicability. This thesis reviews the legislative history of the ban and the litigation, and recommends Congressional action in the wake of the Supreme Court opinion.