Q. As a company, we would like to organize site visits for agency officials, so they can better understand our company and industry.  Can we cover expenditures for these visits?

A. State and local gift restrictions will apply to company expenditures associated with a site visit by a government official or employee, especially if your company is a lobbyist employer or state contractor.  Food, beverage, entertainment, travel, lodging, or other promotional/welcome gifts could be restricted or banned.  However, many jurisdictions have specific gift exceptions allowing expenditures in conjunction with site visits.  Each jurisdiction has its own requirements for gift law compliance…

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For more information, be sure to check out the Gift Law and Reports Required sections of the Lobbying Compliance Laws online publication for any  jurisdiction. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

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On Jan. 1, new changes to regulations concerning gifts for federal employees take effect.

Among the changes the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) made to the federal regulations include a non-binding recommendation employees “consider declining otherwise permissible gifts if they believe that a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts would question the employee’s integrity or impartiality as a result of accepting the gift.”

Additionally, federal officials who are required to be granted permission to attend “widely attended events” must now seek the permission in writing. The OGE declined to change the $20 threshold for accepting a gift.

Amendments to the rules made by the OGE were published on Nov. 18 in the Federal Register. The OGE press release is here.