Cite as: 513 U. S. 454 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
certain high-level Executive Branch employees above the salary grade GS-15.2 See 103 Stat. 1768. Another section—the one at issue here—amended § 501(b) of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to create an "Honoraria Prohibition," which reads: "An individual may not receive any honorarium while that individual is a Member, officer or employee." Id., at 1760.
Section 505 of the Ethics Reform Act defined "officer or employee" to include nearly all employees of the Federal Government and "Member" to include any Representative, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner to Congress. The Congressional Operations Appropriations Act, 1992, adopted in 1991,3 extended both the salary increase and the prohibition against honoraria to the Senate. The 1989 Act defined "honorarium" to encompass any compensation paid to a Government employee for "an appearance, speech or article." 4 The 1992 Appropriations Act amended that definition to exclude any series of appearances, speeches, or articles unrelated to the employee's official duties or status. The definition now reads as follows:
"(3) The term 'honorarium' means a payment of money or any thing of value for an appearance, speech
2 The General Schedule, abbreviated "GS," is the basic pay schedule for employees of the Federal Government. 5 U. S. C. § 5332 (1988 ed. and Supp. V). The Executive Branch positions to which the statute gave the salary increase are on the Executive Schedule, a separate pay scale above the General Schedule. See 103 Stat. 1768.
3 105 Stat. 447, 5 U. S. C. § 5318 note (1988 ed., Supp. V).
4 The original definition read as follows: "(3) The term 'honorarium' means a payment of money or any thing of value for an appearance, speech or article by a Member, officer or employee, excluding any actual and necessary travel expenses incurred by such individual (and one relative) to the extent that such expenses are paid or reimbursed by any other person, and the amount otherwise determined shall be reduced by the amount of any such expenses to the extent that such expenses are not paid or reimbursed." 103 Stat. 1761, 1762.
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