Ethics in the Federal Government

“Corruption, improper and usually unlawful conduct intended to secure a benefit for oneself or another its forms include bribery, extortion, and the misuse of inside information. It exists where there is community indifference or a lack of enforcement policies.”(Encyclopedia Britannica). Today political Corruption in all forms exists in every country in the world. In some countries it is more prominent then in others, but no matter where you go it still occurs. Recently in mid 2013 some political corruption was brought to light in New York. “Since 2007, state senators have been more likely to be arrested then to lose their seats in a general election,” (New York Public Interest Research group). In April of 2013 New York State

Those thought to be ethical or moral are described in terms of their values in regards to honesty, integrity and good character. Our ethical conduct originates from our values which are greatly influenced by our morals; they provide guidance and are our standard for the ways in which we carry out and view right and wrong decisions. For these reasons, personal ethics are said to be our foundation and, as such, often influence how we administer ethical codes of conduct in our personal lives, and the ways in which we carry out our organizational duties. The normative foundations of public service ethics are those standards used to justify and defend one’s conduct, i.e. reasoning about obligations, consequences and ultimate ends in specific situations. In addition to personal codes of conduct, leadership in the public sector requires the ability to apply ethical reasoning based on formal controls and technical standards.

The roll of ethics in public administration is based on the administration; administrators should be value-free when they implement public policy. I will discuss why ethics should be based on the administration and, why it should not be based on each individual worker in the administration. I will discuss Weber’s stance on values in bureaucratic organizations, what Macintyre suggests, and what Hummel and Goodsell would conclude about values in public administration. Most people do not understand what an administration deals with everyday on an individual basis. They might think that an administration is supposed to make the best ethical choices, but that is not the case. People who are outside the administration might think that administrators are supposed to use everyday values when implementing policy, but that is also not the case.

There are many ethical dilemmas that occur daily in our hospitals across the world. Not everyone agrees with standards and policies that are required in hospitals or even with the law. If not everyone obeys the law, ethical cases form. In Springfield, Missouri, a holistic nurse got fired for fighting against Cox South hospital policies. Carla Brock has been a nurse at Cox South hospital and not only refused the flu shot, but also refused to wear a mask. She refused due to religious beliefs, she gets short of breath while wearing the mask, and she feels the mask is meant to intimidate and humiliate those who refuse the shot. The ethical question in this case study is to decide if Carla should have been fired for not wearing a mask after refusing the flu shot and what are other potential proposals. The four-way method will separate out what are the truths, consequences, fairness, and character, of this ethical case study.

“All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law” This quote from Theodore Roosevelt illustrates how corporate money can be disastrous when involved in election cycles. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The Supreme Court decided in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that companies and Super PAC’s could donate unlimited amount of money to support candidates. The Citizens United ruling has caused increased political corruption in the United States by giving candidates the money they need to win an election while changing policies that would be beneficial to the company.

By doing this, the government was helping to stop corruption in the political process. The Hatch Act was expanded in 1940 to cover state and local employees whose salaries are paid in part but federal funds or whose duties are connected to federally funded activities. People who fall under the Hatch Act are all government officials, federal employees, and anybody paid by federal funds. In the 1940’s and 1970’s the Hatch Act was appealed to the United States Supreme Court claiming it violated free speech. Both times the court upheld the constitutionality of the law. According to _________ (Article 14) The prohibitions contained in the Hatch Act can be summarized as follows: covered employees may not: (1) be candidates for public office in a partisan election; (2) use official authority or influence to interfere with or affect the results of an election; or (3) directly or indirectly coerce contributions from subordinated in support of a political candidate. Alleged violations of the Hatch Act are investigated by the United States Office of Special Counsel. If, following an investigation, there is evidence of a violation, a written complaint for disciplinary action may be filed with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (“MSPB”) where a trial-like proceeding will be held. After consideration of the record, the MSPB will determine if discipline is warranted. Importantly, if discipline is warranted, the penalty may be forfeiture of

Federal employees may be subjugated to a lot of different duties while employed. There are times where employees bring into question if the policies and practices that are being employed are really ethical. Unfortunately, there are certain circumstances that may prevent a person from questioning these policies and practices in fear of losing their job, or worse. One former federal employee stood up to question such policies for the wellbeing of the potentially innocent. Dr. Frederic Whitehurst took a stance against the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice as a means to make reform.

Political corruption in the United States is present an at least one of the three branches of government in all fifty states but is most common in the Legislative branch. Ending political corruption is nearly impossible because public officials will always find a loophole in the existing laws but reducing corruption is possible. The most efficient way to dramatically reducing political corruption is by targeting the Legislative branch of the United States government. Two members of Congress are trying to exactly do that by proposing a law, At the federal level, that would impose term limits on members of Congress. Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Ron DeSantis are both pushing an amendment to be added to the United States Constitution which would impose term limits on members of the House of Representative and the Senate. Political corruption in the legislative branch of the federal government is a problem because members of Congress will favor special interest rather than their constituent. A law that was passed at the federal level to try solving this problem is the “Honest Leadership and Open Government Act” and a proposed law at the state level Ohio "Strengthening Term Limits on State Legislators" Amendment but both laws don't go far enough. By Imposing term limits on Congress it will help reduce political corruption because it will constantly bring new faces to Congress which will make it harder for special interest to have a “grip” on Congress. Congressional term

activities and placing ceilings on campaign expenditures. The act is named for its author, Senator Carl Atwood Hatch

The United States Federal Government is based off of a system of checks and balances. This system keeps the three branches of government from getting too powerful, but unfortunately, it cannot control the intent of politicians who are working in these branches. Focusing on Congress, we continually see gridlock, ideological polarization, and general dysfunction as a result of lack of proper intention and corruption in our group of representatives.

It establishes that “every citizen can have complete confidence in the integrity of the Federal Government” (DOJ, n. p.), in section 101 of the code. In an attempt to hold true this statement the ethic code instructs all employees not to use their employment with the government in a way that would be view as immoral abuse of power. Examples of Ethical Codes. Fourteen directives were developed to guide the federal employee toward the expected behavior. Below are five examples that reflects the heart of the ethical standard code (DOJ, n. p.):

The Ethics in government act was written into federal law on October 26, 1978. The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 was caused by the rise of the Richard Nixon Watergate scandal and the Saturday Night Massacre. The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal that was an attempt of a cover up of a break in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. President Richard Nixon attempted the cover up. The Saturday Night massacre was the dismissal of high-ranking officials under Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. The Ethics in Government Act was created to reduce corruption and to “prevent the use of knowledge gained while in the government’s employ for former federal employees.” (http://definitions.uslegal.com) The act also created the Office of Government Ethics, which was created to be responsible for

As federal employees we need to look at the topic of ethics as Moses looked at the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, are a set of commandments which the bible describes as being given to the Israelites by God on Mount Sinai. The Commandments were a set of religious ethics of how God is worshipped. The Code of Ethics are in a sense a governing set of instructions devised by law makers to help us in all situations. For contracting professionals to meet this you need a set of Ethical Ten Commandments, to keep you honest when conducting government business. The Ethical Commandments might go something like this:

The following is an outline of how we will train people to do Public Affairs (PA) for the US Army. I believe a combined approach of reading information at home and then coming to work to do practical exercises will maximize the amount of information people must learn while minimizing the time it takes to teach them.

Professionals in every field are always confronted with some kind of ethical issues. It has however been noted that these ethical issues become high in magnitude and extent when public officials are involved. Due to the involvement of human life, an industry like healthcare holds ethics in highest regard. Even though these healthcare practitioners are highly trained to deal with issues of these kinds, their decisions can sometimes have a lasting impact on their professional and personal lives (Edwards 2009).