From: Walter M.

Shaub
To: "Passantino, Stefan C. EOP/WHO"
Cc: David J. Apol; Deborah J. Bortot; Heather A. Jones; Shelley K. Finlayson
Subject: Reince Priebus
Date: Wednesday, April 26, 2017 7:11:38 PM
Attachments: April 25 Status.pdf

Stefan,

Reince Priebus went on Fox News this afternoon and stated incorrectly that there are hundreds of
nominees sitting around waiting for OGE. As you know, thats not the case.

At the end of the day yesterday there were 92 pending nominee reports, and 75% of them were sent
to OGE in the last 30 days. In addition, weve been clearing nominees faster than we did in the last
Administration, which has been quite an accomplishment given how much more complex these
nominee reports are than the last Administrations nominee reports.

Also, as Im sure you know, the primary factor that determines how fast a nominee is cleared is the
nominees level of responsiveness. Some of these nominees have been very responsive. Some of the
others have been pushing back against the governments ethics requirements with a ferocity weve
not previously seen.

Weve appreciated the help youve personally given us in pushing a few of the nominees who have
been the slowest to respond to questions about their disclosures. However, the last thing we need
for the morale of our nominee reviewers is to have the Chief of Staff to the President smearing them
with false information.

Id appreciate it if you could have a talk with Reince. You can tell him that Id be happy to speak with
him too, if that would help. You can also show him the attached document on the chance that he is
just misinformed.

Thanks.

Walt

Walter M. Shaub, Jr.

Director
U.S. Office of Government Ethics
1201 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005-3917

Telephone: 202.482.9292
Email: walter.shaub@oge.gov
 Distribution of Reports by Complexity Level as of April 25 Percentage of Received Reports Precleared* as of April 25
extremely 2017 2009
complex
2016-17 2008-09

extremely
complex simple simple
received and received and
received received precleared
precleared
complex

moderate
complex
moderate

*Note: A nominees ethics package is precleared when all substantive ethics work
has been completed (i.e., all information has been received and corrected, the
financial disclosure report has been reviewed, and all identified conflicts of interest
are addressed in an ethics agreement). Thereafter, the ethics package can be
400
submitted for final review and certification before its transmission to the Senate.
Cumulative Number of Nominee Reports Received by April 25
350 Mean Average Days From Receipt to Preclearance
2009 (100%) 2017 (46%)
300

250

200

150

100

50

0
20-Nov
25-Nov
30-Nov

14-Jan
19-Jan
24-Jan
29-Jan
3-Feb
8-Feb
10-Dec
15-Dec
20-Dec
25-Dec
30-Dec

13-Feb
18-Feb
23-Feb
28-Feb

4-Apr
9-Apr
5-Mar

14-Apr
19-Apr
24-Apr
10-Mar
15-Mar
20-Mar
25-Mar
30-Mar
4-Jan
9-Jan
5-Dec

0 10 20 30 40
**8-year average: covers 11/9/08 10/31/16
 NOMINEE STATUS AS OF APRIL 25, 2017
To date, OGE has received 181 nominee reports
92 nominee reports are currently pending
OGE received 75% of these reports within the last 30 days
The oldest pending report was received 61 days ago
45 nominee reports have been submitted to the Senate
Some nominees have withdrawn, either before or after
submission of their reports to the Senate
For nominees who have satisfied all ethics
requirements, it has taken them an average of 22 days.