diff --git a/staging/publishing/rules.yaml b/staging/publishing/rules.yaml
index fa0b1ee2d6f..9155ea53a91 100644
--- a/staging/publishing/rules.yaml
+++ b/staging/publishing/rules.yaml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ recursive-delete-patterns:
 - BUILD.bazel
 - "*/BUILD.bazel"
 - Gopkg.toml
-default-go-version: 1.15.8
+default-go-version: 1.16
 rules:
 - destination: code-generator
   branches: