The Foreign Service Journal, November 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2012 71 AFSA NEWS Taking STOCK of Unintended Consequences BY CLINT LOHSE, LEGISLATIVE ASSISTANT AFSA has been making steady progress in its effort to prevent specific provisions of a new law from going into effect that would require thousands of federal employ- ees to make their financial disclosure forms publicly available on the Internet. While the STOCK Act’s original intent was to prevent insider trading, the unin- tended consequences of the law have created personal risks for government employ- ees, as well as potential national security threats. In his State of the Union address last January, Presi- dent Barack Obama chal- lenged Congress to “Send me a bill that bans insider trad- ing by members of Congress; I will sign it tomorrow.” As Congress worked on the issue, the legislation that emerged applied not just to members of Congress, but to congressional staff and more than 28,000 executive branch employees. More troubling was the require- ment that personal financial reports regularly filed by federal employees be posted in a searchable, download- able online database. While financial disclo- sure forms filed by federal employees are already tech- nically public, they are not available online. The process for obtaining the records requires the person or orga- nization making the request to disclose their identity. On April 4, the bill signed into law by Pres. Obama did not include any language pro- tecting the privacy of federal employees who are required to file. As a government trans- parency measure and an opportunity for members of Congress to demon- strate their commitment to accountability, the STOCK Act received overwhelming support in both the Senate and the House. Only three senators and two representa- tives opposed the measure: Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., voted against it because of the burdensome reporting requirements, while Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga., and Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., cited laws already on the books prohibiting insider trading by government officials. In their effort to prove their commitment to govern- ment transparency, legisla- tors failed to see the law’s flaws. However, they rapidly became apparent to thou- sands of federal employees suddenly faced with require- ments that their personal financial information be publicly disclosed. In May, AFSA joined a coalition of organizations that represent govern- ment employees to make a concerted effort to correct the sections of the STOCK Act that put federal workers at personal risk and, poten- tially, could create a national security threat. National security concerns regarding the public posting require- ments were highlighted in a July 19 letter to members of Congress. Signed by more than a dozen former national security leaders, the letter noted that posting “complete personal financial informa- tion of all senior officials on the Internet would be a jackpot for enemies of the United States intent on find- ing security vulnerabilities they can exploit.” Over the summer, AFSA was fully involved with the coalition’s work to convince lawmakers to reconsider the online posting require- ments. AFSA President Susan Johnson and AFSA Vice President for the Foreign Commercial Service Keith Curtis led AFSA’s efforts to illustrate the unnecessary risks the STOCK Act creates, especially the possibility that Foreign Service person- nel could be targeted by hostile intelligence agencies or criminal organizations. Legislators were receptive to the concerns raised by the coalition regarding the online posting requirements, but were hesitant to undo this aspect of the law. On Aug. 6, Johnson sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, appealing for her support as well. On Aug. 2, with the deadline for implementa- tion at the end of the month and Congress scheduled to recess until after Septem- ber, the coalition, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, chal- lenging the STOCK Act as a breach of federal employees’ right to privacy. After further stopgap extensions through August and September, Congress pushed back the deadline to Dec. 8, and mandated a study by the National Academy of Public Administration to determine the full effects the online posting requirements could have on government employees. The study is not due to be completed until early next year, and members of Congress are already calling for further delays until the NAPA report is finalized. Meanwhile, AFSA and its coalition partners are continuing to pursue both a legislative fix and legal rem- edies to overturn the online posting requirements. ■ ... the unintended consequences of the law have created personal risks for government employees ...