Government operations and workforce

Executive Order 13184: Revocation of Executive Order 12834

President: Bill Clinton

Revoked the Clinton administration’s 1993 appointee ethics pledge at the end of the administration.

Status: Completed/expired. Sources: EO 13184 · OGE January 2, 2001 advisory.

Is Executive Order 13184 still in effect? No. Its one-time revocation of Executive Order 12834 took effect at noon on January 20, 2001, and is complete; it did not repeal the statutory post-employment restrictions.

What does Executive Order 13184 do?

EO 13184 revoked EO 12834 effective at noon on January 20, 2001. It released covered appointees from the contractual ethics pledge created at the administration’s start, while expressly leaving statutory criminal and civil ethics restrictions in place. Presidents Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden later used different ethics rules or pledges rather than reviving EO 12834.

Claim-level review October 2, 2026: EO 13184 ended the prior administration's executive-branch ethics pledge. It did not repeal post-employment restrictions or other ethics requirements imposed by statute.

Administration position: Revoking the pledge did not erase statutory post-employment, conflict-of-interest, disclosure or foreign-agent rules.
SignedDecember 28, 2000
EffectiveNoon on January 20, 2001
Order revokedEO 12834

Before and after

Before the order

Clinton appointees remained contractually bound by EO 12834’s pledge in addition to generally applicable ethics law.

After the order

The pledge ended with the administration; statutory duties and later administrations’ policies applied separately.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
Agency headsStop administering the EO 12834 pledge after the effective timeCompleted
Former appointeesContinue complying with applicable statutes and regulationsContinuing independently
Later presidentsSet their own appointee ethics policiesOccurred under later orders

What happened next

EO 13184 was signed.

EO 12834 was revoked at noon.

EO 13490 imposed a new administration-specific pledge.

EO 14148 revoked the Biden pledge order, leaving current policy to later action.

Signed text, official disposition and the cited later implementation records for EO 13184 rechecked.