Which officials must file financial disclosure reports?

What is the law?

Title I of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 is now codified in 5 U.S.C. 13101 to 13111, as the House Ethics Committee's financial disclosure page notes. Section 13103 sets out who files reports and when. This article summarises what we read; it does not replace the statute.

When do they file?

According to the text of section 13103:

Who is covered in the executive branch?

For the executive branch, the Office of Government Ethics regulation 5 CFR 2634.202 defines a "public filer": the President; the Vice President; each executive-branch officer or employee, including a special Government employee, in a position classified above GS-15 or paid at least 120 percent of the minimum rate for GS-15; and members of the uniformed services at specified pay grades, among others. Presidential nominees to Senate-confirmed positions are covered by the nominee rule above. The forms are OGE Form 278e and OGE Form 278-T (see what they are).

Who is covered in the House?

The House Ethics Committee page says Title I requires Members, Officers, certain employees of the House and related offices, and candidates for the House to file financial disclosure reports with the Clerk of the House. The periodic transaction report form names Members and "Officers and Employees who qualify as senior staff". So the House has two tiers of filer: members, and a defined set of staff. The same page says reports are filed electronically or on paper with the Clerk, not with the Committee.

What about the Senate and the courts?

We did not read the parts of the statute that list Senate and judicial-branch filers or their filing procedures, and the Senate's own site refused automated access when we tried it. So this article makes no statement about who is covered in the Senate staff or in the judiciary.

Are the reports public?

The title of the reports is "public financial disclosure", and the STOCK Act requires the financial disclosure forms of Members, officers and employees of Congress and of executive-branch agencies to be made available to the public on official websites within 30 days after filing (see how the chambers publish them). The OGE site has a collection of individual officials' disclosures. The OGE home page lists it.

What is in a report?

Section 13103 refers to the information described in section 13104 of the title, which we did not read in full. The House Ethics Committee page notes that annual reports are different from periodic transaction reports: members must also disclose securities transactions over $1,000 within 30 days of notice and no later than 45 days after the trade. OQRO's politician trades page and its White House page cover what is machine-readable.

How do you look up one official's report?

For a member of the House, use the Clerk's Financial Disclosure Reports page and search for the member. For a senior executive-branch official, use the Office of Government Ethics site and its task "Find an Individual's Ethics Document", or the collection called "View Officials' Individual Disclosures". For a presidential or vice-presidential candidate, the OGE guide says candidates submit their OGE Form 278e to the Federal Election Commission. For a Senator, use the Senate's own search in a browser.

Check the report's type and its date: an annual report covers the previous calendar year and is due on 15 May, a nominee report comes with the nomination, and a transaction report covers specific trades. Reading the type tells you what period the information describes.

What period does a report cover?

For an incumbent, the statute says a person who held the position for more than 60 days in a calendar year files on or before 15 May of the following year, and the termination provision refers to covering the preceding calendar year. So an annual report on file in 2026 describes the previous calendar year in the main, and the transaction reports run on their own, much shorter schedule of 30 and 45 days.

What this does not tell you

Being a filer does not suggest wrongdoing: it is a requirement of the office, and the reports exist so the public can see financial interests. A report on file shows what the filer reported; it is not a statement from an agency that the report is complete. Nothing here says that any named person has filed or has not filed. To see a particular official's report, use the official site: the House Clerk, the Senate's site, or OGE.