Section 207(c) imposes on certain former "senior personnel" of the executive branch, including any independent agency, of the federal government (but not, in this case, the DC government) a one-year prohibition on representational communications with or appearances before an officer or employee of a department or agency in which he or she served within one year before leaving government, "with the intent to influence" such officer or employee "in connection with any matter on which such person seeks official action by any officer or employee of such department or agency." Unlike the prohibitions of sections 207(a)(1) and (a)(2), discussed immediately above, this prohibition does not depend on the former official having had any previous involvement in the matter that is the subject of the contacts with his or her former agency. The principal purpose of section 207(c) is to address "the problem of unfair or undue influence by former officials over their former colleagues and subordinates." S. Rep. 95-170, at 154 (1977).

"Senior" personnel to whom the prohibition applies are specified by section 207(c)(2) as those who fit in one of the following categories:

1. those employed at a rate of pay specified in or fixed according to subchapter II of chapter 53 of title 5 [which refers to the Executive Schedule, comprising the five highest pay grades for non-elected Federal government officials];
2. those paid at a salary equal to or greater than level 5 of the Senior Executive Service [another five-stop scale of pay grades comprising government employees not subject to presidential appointment or Senatorial confirmation];
3. those appointed by the President to a position under section 105(a)(2)(B) of title 3 [certain White House employees];
4. those appointed by the Vice President under section 106(a)(1)(B) of title 3 [certain assistants to the Vice President];
5. active duty commissioned officers paid at pay grade 0-7 [brigadier general] or above; or
6. those detailed to any of the foregoing positions.

5 CFR § 2641.101.
Excluded from the prohibition are very senior personnel who are subject to section 207(d) (discussed under 1.11:640, below); and "special Government employees" who served less than 60 days in the one-year period before termination of such service. And the Director of the Office of Government Ethics is authorized to narrow the scope of the prohibition in various ways, as described below.

As described under 1.11:600, above, subsection (j) of section 207 sets out seven general exceptions to some or all of the post-employment prohibitions contained in that section. The prohibition of subsection (c) is subject to all seven of those exceptions.

The one-year period in which the prohibition applies runs from the date on which employment as a senior employee ends, not the date of leaving government employment, if the two do not coincide. OGE Summary at 8. The OGE Summary explains that "[t]he purpose of this one-year `cooling off´ period is to allow for a period of adjustment to the new roles for the former senior employee and the agency he served, and to diminish any appearance that Government decisions might be affected by the improper use by an individual of his former senior position." Id.

Like the lifetime prohibition and the one-year prohibition in section 207(a), discussed under the two preceding headings, this prohibition applies only to representational communications or appearances with "intent to influence," and not to "behind-the-scenes" assistance. OGE Summary at 8. It applies, however, to any "matter" and, unlike those provisions, not merely to a "particular matter" involving a "specific party or parties"; nor need the "matter" involve a direct and substantial government interest. Additionally, as has been mentioned, there is no requirement that the former senior employee have had any prior involvement with the "matter" that is the subject of the communication or appearance. OGE Summary at 8. And, unlike the prohibitions in section 207(a), this prohibition applies to contacts only with the person’s former agency, not the entire executive branch.

The OGE Summary reads the language of the statute literally to prohibit communication with an employee of any agency in which the former employee served in the one year period prior to termination of Senior Employee status, not simply the agency in which the former employee served as Senior Employee. Id. at 8. Thus, for example, if a former employee served in agency A in a non-Senior Employee post from January 1, 1996 to June 1, 1996 and served in agency B in a Senior Employee post from June 1, 1996 to January 1, 1997, she would be barred from communicating with employees of agency A and agency B from January 1, 1997 to January 1, 1998.

Section 207(c)(2)(C), which was added by the 1989 amendments, gives the Director of OGE authority, at the request of a department or agency, to waive the restrictions imposed, with respect to any position or category of positions in the department or agency, upon a determination that (i) the imposition of the restrictions with respect thereto would create an undue hardship in obtaining qualified personnel to fill the position, and (ii) granting the waiver would not create the potential for use of undue influence or unfair advantage.

In addition, section 207(h) authorizes the Director of OGE to designate an agency or bureau within a department or agency as a separate department or agency for purposes of section 207(c) when the Director determines that the agency or bureau performs separate functions that preclude the potential for undue influence over other parts of the parent department or agency. As an exception to this authority, no agency or bureau within the Executive Office of the President may be designated as separate, and designations of other agencies do not apply to persons who are Senior Employees by virtue of categories (1), (3) or (4) under subsection (c)(2), described in the text above. Section 207(h)(2). Thus, to take an example from the OGE Summary, OGE could designate the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) as an agency that exercises functions that are separate and distinct from its "parent" department, the Department of Defense (DOD). Id. at 8. An individual formerly serving in the DOD but not the DLA would then be barred by section 207(c) from communicating with an employee of most agencies or bureaus of DOD, but would not be barred as to employees of the DLA. Conversely, an individual formerly serving with the DLA would be barred from communications with DLA employees, but not with employees of other agencies or bureaus of DOD. Prior to the 1989 amendments, the limitation of section 207(c)’s applicability resulting from OGE designations of separate agencies or bureaus did not extend to former officers or employees with official responsibility for supervision of such agencies. See 5 CFR § 2637.205(c)(3) (interpreting what was then section 207(e), now amended and redesignated as section 207(h), and stating that such persons remained subject to the prohibition of section 207(c) on communicating with employees of the designated agency despite such designation). As a result of the 1989 amendments, the reference to officers or employees with supervisory responsibilities was dropped, so that such persons are no longer excluded on this basis from the effect of separate agency designations by OGE. This change in statutory language would, however, be of no practical effect if the officer or employee were a Senior Employee in category (1), (3) or (4) under subsection (c)(2). Moreover, where the communication related to a particular matter involving specific parties, the two year prohibition of section 207(a)(2) (discussed under 1.11:620 above) would apply in any event.

The "Clinton Pledge"
The "Clinton Pledge," required by Executive Order 12834 to be executed by every "senior appointee" in every executive agency appointed on or after January 20, 1993, includes two undertakings whose effect is to extend from one year to five years the post-employment period in which the substance of the restrictions of section 207(c) (albeit without statutory sanctions) apply. The pledges are these:

1. I will not, within five years after the termination of my employment as a senior appointee in any executive agency in which I am appointed to serve, lobby any officer or employee of that agency.
2. In the event that I serve as a senior appointee in the Executive Office of the President ("EOP") . . . I also will not, within five years after I cease to be a senior appointee in the EOP, lobby any officer or employee of any other executive agency with respect to which I had personal and substantial responsibility as a senior appointee in the EOP.

The term "senior appointee" is defined by section 2(a) of the Executive Order as meaning "every full-time, non-career Presidential, Vice-presidential or agency head appointee in an executive agency whose rate of basic pay is not less than the rate or level V of the Executive Schedule (5 USC §5316)," but excludes members of the senior foreign service and uniformed service commissioned officers. This is a somewhat less inclusive group than the "senior personnel" to which section 207(c) applies, at least as respects the two exclusions. (A memorandum dated January 5, 1996 from White House Counsel to heads of agencies stated that the Executive Order does not apply to non-career Senior Executive Service level 4 appointees and certain others in similar pay systems.) The term "lobby" is defined by section 2(c) of the Executive Order as meaning "to knowingly communicate to or appear before any officer or employee of any executive agency on behalf of another (except the United States) with the intent to influence official action," with a series of exceptions corresponding roughly to those in section 207(j), discussed under 1.11:600, above. The terms "personal and substantial responsibility" and "personal and substantial participation" are defined in subsections 2(g) and (h) of the Executive Order , in terms that incorporate the definitions of "personally" and "substantially" as those terms are defined for purposes of sections 207(a) and (b).

As to enforcement, see the discussion under the subcaption The "Clinton Pledge," in 1.11:600, above.