Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2455 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 2455
55 To require Executive agencies to limit the use of special Government employ-
66 ees to 130 days, to require the maintenance of a public database of
77 certain special Government employees, to require the release of financial
88 disclosures filed by certain special Government employees, and for other
99 purposes.
1010 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
1111 MARCH27, 2025
1212 Mr. M
1313 IN(for himself, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, and Ms. NOR-
1414 TON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
1515 on Oversight and Government Reform
1616 A BILL
1717 To require Executive agencies to limit the use of special
1818 Government employees to 130 days, to require the main-
1919 tenance of a public database of certain special Govern-
2020 ment employees, to require the release of financial disclo-
2121 sures filed by certain special Government employees, and
2222 for other purposes.
2323 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
2424 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2525 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2626 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Special Government 4
2727 Employees Transparency Act of 2025’’. 5
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3131 SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON THE USE OF SPECIAL GOVERN-1
3232 MENT EMPLOYEES. 2
3333 (a) D
3434 EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘special 3
3535 Government employee’’ means an individual who— 4
3636 (1) is a special Government employee under 5
3737 section 202(a) of title 18, United States Code, or 6
3838 any other provision of Federal law; and 7
3939 (2) is employed by an agency, department, of-8
4040 fice, or other entity within the executive branch of 9
4141 the United States Government, without regard to 10
4242 whether employees of that agency, department, of-11
4343 fice, or entity are subject to the requirements of title 12
4444 5, United States Code. 13
4545 (b) E
4646 STABLISHMENT OF LIMIT.—Notwithstanding 14
4747 any other provision of law— 15
4848 (1) an individual who otherwise qualifies as a 16
4949 special Government employee shall cease to be a spe-17
5050 cial Government employee after having served as a 18
5151 special Government employee for 130 days, regard-19
5252 less of whether those days were consecutive, during 20
5353 any period of 365 consecutive days; and 21
5454 (2) if an individual described in paragraph (1) 22
5555 exceeds the 130-day threshold described in that 23
5656 paragraph— 24
5757 (A) the employing authority of the indi-25
5858 vidual shall, not later than 30 days after the 26
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6262 date of cessation of such special Government 1
6363 employee status— 2
6464 (i) determine the appropriate employ-3
6565 ment classification for the individual in ac-4
6666 cordance with applicable civil service laws 5
6767 and regulations, including which position 6
6868 the individual shall be considered to occupy 7
6969 beginning on the date of that determina-8
7070 tion; 9
7171 (ii) with respect to the individual, fol-10
7272 low an appropriate applicable Federal per-11
7373 sonnel framework in a manner consistent 12
7474 with the duties and responsibilities of the 13
7575 position in which the individual is serving 14
7676 as determined under clause (i) and with 15
7777 the personnel management policies of the 16
7878 employing authority; and 17
7979 (iii) provide written notice to the indi-18
8080 vidual— 19
8181 (I) of the new classification de-20
8282 termination required under clause (i); 21
8383 and 22
8484 (II) that the individual may ap-23
8585 peal or seek review of the new classi-24
8686 fication determination through appeal 25
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9090 and review procedures applicable to 1
9191 the position in which the individual is 2
9292 serving as determined under clause 3
9393 (i); and 4
9494 (B) the individual shall be subject to all 5
9595 applicable provisions of law, including legal obli-6
9696 gations and rights, relating to employees occu-7
9797 pying the position in which the individual is 8
9898 serving as determined under subparagraph 9
9999 (A)(i). 10
100100 (c) C
101101 OUNTINGDAYS OFSERVICE.—For purposes of 11
102102 subsection (b), 1 full day of service shall be counted to-12
103103 ward the 130-day limit described in subsection (b)(1) for 13
104104 each day— 14
105105 (1) during which an individual has provided any 15
106106 service as a special Government employee that is 16
107107 purely administrative in nature, such as making a 17
108108 brief telephone call to confirm the date of a meeting 18
109109 or completing and filing personnel paperwork, for 19
110110 more than 1 hour; 20
111111 (2) during which the individual has performed 21
112112 any service as a special Government employee, such 22
113113 as reading official materials or substantively pre-23
114114 paring for a meeting, that is not purely administra-24
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118118 tive in nature, regardless of the length of time spent 1
119119 performing such service; or 2
120120 (3) for which the individual has been com-3
121121 pensated by the Government for service as a special 4
122122 Government employee. 5
123123 SEC. 3. TRANSPARENCY FOR SPECIAL GOVERNMENT EM-6
124124 PLOYEES. 7
125125 (a) D
126126 EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
127127 (1) A
128128 DVISORY COMMITTEE .—The term ‘‘advi-9
129129 sory committee’’— 10
130130 (A) has the meaning given the term in sec-11
131131 tion 1001 of title 5, United States Code; and 12
132132 (B) does not include— 13
133133 (i) the United States DOGE Service, 14
134134 or any successor organization; 15
135135 (ii) the U.S. DOGE Service Tem-16
136136 porary Organization, or any successor or-17
137137 ganization; or 18
138138 (iii) any DOGE Team (as described in 19
139139 Executive Order 14158 (90 Fed. Reg. 20
140140 8441), relating to establishing and imple-21
141141 menting the President’s ‘‘Department of 22
142142 Government Efficiency’’), or any successor 23
143143 organization. 24
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147147 (2) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL PARTIES .— 1
148148 The term ‘‘appropriate congressional parties’’ 2
149149 means— 3
150150 (A) the Committee on Homeland Security 4
151151 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 5
152152 (B) the Committee on Oversight and Gov-6
153153 ernment Reform of the House of Representa-7
154154 tives; 8
155155 (C) the majority leader of the Senate; 9
156156 (D) the Speaker of the House of Rep-10
157157 resentatives; 11
158158 (E) the minority leader of the Senate; and 12
159159 (F) the minority leader of the House of 13
160160 Representatives. 14
161161 (3) C
162162 OVERED SPECIAL GOVERNMENT EM -15
163163 PLOYEE.—The term ‘‘covered special Government 16
164164 employee’’ means any individual— 17
165165 (A) who is a special Government employee 18
166166 under section 202(a) of title 18, United States 19
167167 Code, or any other provision of Federal law; 20
168168 and 21
169169 (B)(i) who is not serving on an advisory 22
170170 committee; 23
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174174 (ii) whose responsibilities are substantially 1
175175 comparable to the types of duties that are clas-2
176176 sified at the GS–11 level or above; and 3
177177 (iii) who is not appointed to a position in 4
178178 the civil service that may only be filled by a 5
179179 full-time student enrolled in an institution of 6
180180 higher education, as defined in section 102 of 7
181181 the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8
182182 1002). 9
183183 (4) D
184184 IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 10
185185 the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. 11
186186 (5) E
187187 XECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Executive 12
188188 agency’’— 13
189189 (A) has the meaning given the term in sec-14
190190 tion 105 of title 5, United States Code; and 15
191191 (B) includes the Executive Office of the 16
192192 President. 17
193193 (6) N
194194 ATIONAL DEFENSE INFORMATION .—The 18
195195 term ‘‘national defense information’’ has the mean-19
196196 ing given the term ‘‘classified information’’ in sec-20
197197 tion 798(b) of title 18, United States Code. 21
198198 (7) SGE
199199 DATABASE.—The term ‘‘SGE Data-22
200200 base’’ means the database established under sub-23
201201 section (b)(1). 24
202202 (b) SGE D
203203 ATABASE.— 25
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207207 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 210 days 1
208208 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director, 2
209209 in consultation with the Director of the Office of 3
210210 Government Ethics, shall establish a searchable, 4
211211 sortable database for the public release of, with re-5
212212 spect to each covered special Government em-6
213213 ployee— 7
214214 (A) the name of the covered special Gov-8
215215 ernment employee; 9
216216 (B) the title of the position of the covered 10
217217 special Government employee; 11
218218 (C) the rate of basic pay, if any, of the 12
219219 covered special Government employee; 13
220220 (D) the employing Executive agency of the 14
221221 covered special Government employee; 15
222222 (E) the employing organizational compo-16
223223 nent of the employing Executive agency of the 17
224224 covered special Government employee; 18
225225 (F) the appointment date of the covered 19
226226 special Government employee; and 20
227227 (G) if applicable, the termination date of 21
228228 the covered special Government employee. 22
229229 (2) P
230230 UBLIC AVAILABILITY.— 23
231231 (A) I
232232 N GENERAL.—The SGE Database 24
233233 shall be accessible to the public through the of-25
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237237 ficial website of the Office of Personnel Man-1
238238 agement without charge and without a require-2
239239 ment that users register for access. 3
240240 (B) R
241241 EQUIREMENTS.—The Director shall 4
242242 ensure that the SGE Database— 5
243243 (i) allows access through an applica-6
244244 tion programming interface; and 7
245245 (ii) is fully compliant with— 8
246246 (I) section 508 of the Rehabilita-9
247247 tion Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d); 10
248248 and 11
249249 (II) the most recent Web Content 12
250250 Accessibility Guidelines (or successor 13
251251 guidelines). 14
252252 (3) C
253253 URRENCY OF INFORMATION .—The head of 15
254254 each Executive agency shall— 16
255255 (A) notify the Director of each appoint-17
256256 ment, designation, conversion, termination, or 18
257257 other personnel action involving or affecting a 19
258258 covered special Government employee not later 20
259259 than 30 days after the date of such personnel 21
260260 action; and 22
261261 (B) from time to time, review information 23
262262 contained in the SGE Database that pertains to 24
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266266 that Executive agency to ensure that the infor-1
267267 mation is current, complete, and accurate. 2
268268 (4) O
269269 VERSIGHT OF SUBMISSIONS .— 3
270270 (A) I
271271 N GENERAL.—The Director shall con-4
272272 duct such periodic audits as may be necessary 5
273273 to ensure that Executive agencies have estab-6
274274 lished adequate procedures for submitting cur-7
275275 rent, complete, and accurate information relat-8
276276 ing to covered special Government employees 9
277277 for inclusion in the SGE Database. 10
278278 (B) R
279279 EPORT.—Not later than 3 years after 11
280280 the date of enactment of this Act, the Director 12
281281 shall submit a report to the appropriate con-13
282282 gressional parties that— 14
283283 (i) describes the efforts undertaken to 15
284284 comply with paragraph (1); and 16
285285 (ii) assesses the degree to which infor-17
286286 mation in the SGE Database is current, 18
287287 complete, and accurate. 19
288288 (c) P
289289 UBLICAVAILABILITY OFFINANCIALDISCLO-20
290290 SUREREPORTS.—Notwithstanding section 13109 of title 21
291291 5, United States Code, each Executive agency shall make 22
292292 publicly available any financial disclosure report filed by 23
293293 a covered special Government employee with the Executive 24
294294 agency after the date of enactment of this Act, using the 25
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298298 procedures established under section 13107 of title 5, 1
299299 United States Code, except that this subsection shall not 2
300300 apply to any financial disclosure report— 3
301301 (1) that is filed by an individual described in 4
302302 paragraph (1) or (2) of section 13107(a) of title 5, 5
303303 United States Code; 6
304304 (2) that is filed by a special Government em-7
305305 ployee who is not a covered special Government em-8
306306 ployee; or 9
307307 (3) that contains national defense information. 10
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