II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1196
To require Executive agencies to limit the use of special Government employ-
ees to 130 days, to require the maintenance of a public database of
certain special Government employees, to require the release of financial
disclosures filed by certain special Government employees, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH27, 2025
Mr. L
UJA´N(for himself, Ms. WARREN, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. KELLY,
Mr. B
LUMENTHAL, Ms. CORTEZMASTO, and Mr. MERKLEY) introduced
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To require Executive agencies to limit the use of special
Government employees to 130 days, to require the main-
tenance of a public database of certain special Govern-
ment employees, to require the release of financial disclo-
sures filed by certain special Government employees, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Special Government 4
Employees Transparency Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON THE USE OF SPECIAL GOVERN-1
MENT EMPLOYEES. 2
(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘special 3
Government employee’’ means an individual who— 4
(1) qualifies as a special Government employee 5
under section 202(a) of title 18, United States Code, 6
or any other provision of Federal law; and 7
(2) is employed by an agency, department, of-8
fice, or other entity within the executive branch of 9
the United States Government, without regard to 10
whether employees of that agency, department, of-11
fice, or entity are subject to the requirements of title 12
5, United States Code. 13
(b) E
STABLISHMENT OF LIMIT.—Notwithstanding 14
any other provision of law— 15
(1) an individual who otherwise qualifies as a 16
special Government employee shall cease to be a spe-17
cial Government employee after having served as a 18
special Government employee for 130 days, regard-19
less of whether those days were consecutive, during 20
any period of 365 consecutive days; and 21
(2) if an individual described in paragraph (1) 22
exceeds the 130-day threshold described in that 23
paragraph— 24
(A) the employing authority of the indi-25
vidual shall, not later than 30 days after the 26
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date of cessation of such special Government 1
employee status— 2
(i) determine the appropriate employ-3
ment classification for the individual in ac-4
cordance with applicable civil service laws 5
and regulations, including which position 6
the individual shall be considered to occupy 7
beginning on the date of that determina-8
tion; 9
(ii) with respect to the individual, fol-10
low an appropriate applicable Federal per-11
sonnel framework in a manner consistent 12
with the duties and responsibilities of the 13
position in which the individual is serving 14
as determined under clause (i) and with 15
the personnel management policies of the 16
employing authority; and 17
(iii) provide written notice to the indi-18
vidual— 19
(I) of the new classification de-20
termination required under clause (i); 21
and 22
(II) that the individual may ap-23
peal or seek review of the new classi-24
fication determination through appeal 25
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and review procedures applicable to 1
the position in which the individual is 2
serving as determined under clause 3
(i); and 4
(B) the individual shall be subject to all 5
applicable provisions of law, including legal obli-6
gations and rights, relating to employees occu-7
pying the position in which the individual is 8
serving as determined under subparagraph 9
(A)(i). 10
(c) C
OUNTINGDAYS OFSERVICE.—For purposes of 11
subsection (b), 1 full day of service shall be counted to-12
ward the 130-day limit described in subsection (b)(1) for 13
each day— 14
(1) during which an individual has provided any 15
service as a special Government employee that is 16
purely administrative in nature, such as making a 17
brief telephone call to confirm the date of a meeting 18
or completing and filing personnel paperwork, for 19
more than 1 hour; 20
(2) during which the individual has performed 21
any service as a special Government employee, such 22
as reading official materials or substantively pre-23
paring for a meeting, that is not purely administra-24
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tive in nature, regardless of the length of time spent 1
performing such service; or 2
(3) for which the individual has been com-3
pensated by the Government for service as a special 4
Government employee. 5
SEC. 3. TRANSPARENCY FOR SPECIAL GOVERNMENT EM-6
PLOYEES. 7
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
(1) A
DVISORY COMMITTEE .—The term ‘‘advi-9
sory committee’’— 10
(A) has the meaning given the term in sec-11
tion 1001 of title 5, United States Code; and 12
(B) does not include— 13
(i) the United States DOGE Service, 14
or any successor organization; 15
(ii) the U.S. DOGE Service Tem-16
porary Organization, or any successor or-17
ganization; or 18
(iii) any DOGE Team (as described in 19
Executive Order 14158 (90 Fed. Reg. 20
8441), relating to establishing and imple-21
menting the President’s ‘‘Department of 22
Government Efficiency’’), or any successor 23
organization. 24
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(2) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL PARTIES .— 1
The term ‘‘appropriate congressional parties’’ 2
means— 3
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 4
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 5
(B) the Committee on Oversight and Gov-6
ernment Reform of the House of Representa-7
tives; 8
(C) the majority leader of the Senate; 9
(D) the Speaker of the House of Rep-10
resentatives; 11
(E) the minority leader of the Senate; and 12
(F) the minority leader of the House of 13
Representatives. 14
(3) C
OVERED SPECIAL GOVERNMENT EM -15
PLOYEE.—The term ‘‘covered special Government 16
employee’’ means any individual— 17
(A) who qualifies as a special Government 18
employee under section 202(a) of title 18, 19
United States Code, or any other provision of 20
Federal law; and 21
(B)(i) who is not serving on an advisory 22
committee; 23
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(ii) whose responsibilities are substantially 1
comparable to the types of duties that are clas-2
sified at the GS–11 level or above; and 3
(iii) who is not appointed to a position in 4
the civil service that may only be filled by a 5
full-time student enrolled in an institution of 6
higher education, as defined in section 102 of 7
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8
1002). 9
(4) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 10
the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. 11
(5) E
XECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Executive 12
agency’’— 13
(A) has the meaning given the term in sec-14
tion 105 of title 5, United States Code; and 15
(B) includes the Executive Office of the 16
President. 17
(6) N
ATIONAL DEFENSE INFORMATION .—The 18
term ‘‘national defense information’’ has the mean-19
ing given the term ‘‘classified information’’ in sec-20
tion 798(b) of title 18, United States Code. 21
(7) SGE
DATABASE.—The term ‘‘SGE Data-22
base’’ means the database established under sub-23
section (b)(1). 24
(b) SGE D
ATABASE.— 25
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(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 210 days 1
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director, 2
in consultation with the Director of the Office of 3
Government Ethics, shall establish a searchable, 4
sortable database for the public release of, with re-5
spect to each covered special Government em-6
ployee— 7
(A) the name of the covered special Gov-8
ernment employee; 9
(B) the title of the position of the covered 10
special Government employee; 11
(C) the rate of basic pay, if any, of the 12
covered special Government employee; 13
(D) the employing Executive agency of the 14
covered special Government employee; 15
(E) the employing organizational compo-16
nent of the employing Executive agency of the 17
covered special Government employee; 18
(F) the appointment date of the covered 19
special Government employee; and 20
(G) if applicable, the termination date of 21
the covered special Government employee. 22
(2) P
UBLIC AVAILABILITY.— 23
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The SGE Database 24
shall be accessible to the public through the of-25
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ficial website of the Office of Personnel Man-1
agement without charge and without a require-2
ment that users register for access. 3
(B) R
EQUIREMENTS.—The Director shall 4
ensure that the SGE Database— 5
(i) allows access through an applica-6
tion programming interface; and 7
(ii) is fully compliant with— 8
(I) section 508 of the Rehabilita-9
tion Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d); 10
and 11
(II) the most recent Web Content 12
Accessibility Guidelines (or successor 13
guidelines). 14
(3) C
URRENCY OF INFORMATION .—The head of 15
each Executive agency shall— 16
(A) notify the Director of each appoint-17
ment, designation, conversion, termination, or 18
other personnel action involving or affecting a 19
covered special Government employee not later 20
than 30 days after the date of such personnel 21
action; and 22
(B) from time to time, review information 23
contained in the SGE Database that pertains to 24
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that Executive agency to ensure that the infor-1
mation is current, complete, and accurate. 2
(4) O
VERSIGHT OF SUBMISSIONS .— 3
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Director shall con-4
duct such periodic audits as may be necessary 5
to ensure that Executive agencies have estab-6
lished adequate procedures for submitting cur-7
rent, complete, and accurate information relat-8
ing to covered special Government employees 9
for inclusion in the SGE Database. 10
(B) R
EPORT.—Not later than 3 years after 11
the date of enactment of this Act, the Director 12
shall submit a report to the appropriate con-13
gressional parties that— 14
(i) describes the efforts undertaken to 15
comply with paragraph (1); and 16
(ii) assesses the degree to which infor-17
mation in the SGE Database is current, 18
complete, and accurate. 19
(c) P
UBLICAVAILABILITY OFFINANCIALDISCLO-20
SUREREPORTS.—Notwithstanding section 13109 of title 21
5, United States Code, each Executive agency shall make 22
publicly available any financial disclosure report filed by 23
a covered special Government employee with the Executive 24
agency after the date of enactment of this Act, using the 25
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procedures established under section 13107 of title 5, 1
United States Code, except that this subsection shall not 2
apply to any financial disclosure report— 3
(1) that is filed by an individual described in 4
paragraph (1) or (2) of section 13107(a) of title 5, 5
United States Code; 6
(2) that is filed by a special Government em-7
ployee who is not a covered special Government em-8
ployee; or 9
(3) that contains national defense information. 10
Æ
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