Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB1196 Compare Versions

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11 II
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION S. 1196
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
1111 MARCH27, 2025
1212 Mr. L
1313 UJA´N(for himself, Ms. WARREN, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. KELLY,
1414 Mr. B
1515 LUMENTHAL, Ms. CORTEZMASTO, and Mr. MERKLEY) introduced
1616 the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee
1717 on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
1818 A BILL
1919 To require Executive agencies to limit the use of special
2020 Government employees to 130 days, to require the main-
2121 tenance of a public database of certain special Govern-
2222 ment employees, to require the release of financial disclo-
2323 sures filed by certain special Government employees, and
2424 for other purposes.
2525 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
2626 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2727 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2828 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Special Government 4
2929 Employees Transparency Act of 2025’’. 5
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3333 SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON THE USE OF SPECIAL GOVERN-1
3434 MENT EMPLOYEES. 2
3535 (a) D
3636 EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘special 3
3737 Government employee’’ means an individual who— 4
3838 (1) qualifies as a special Government employee 5
3939 under section 202(a) of title 18, United States Code, 6
4040 or any other provision of Federal law; and 7
4141 (2) is employed by an agency, department, of-8
4242 fice, or other entity within the executive branch of 9
4343 the United States Government, without regard to 10
4444 whether employees of that agency, department, of-11
4545 fice, or entity are subject to the requirements of title 12
4646 5, United States Code. 13
4747 (b) E
4848 STABLISHMENT OF LIMIT.—Notwithstanding 14
4949 any other provision of law— 15
5050 (1) an individual who otherwise qualifies as a 16
5151 special Government employee shall cease to be a spe-17
5252 cial Government employee after having served as a 18
5353 special Government employee for 130 days, regard-19
5454 less of whether those days were consecutive, during 20
5555 any period of 365 consecutive days; and 21
5656 (2) if an individual described in paragraph (1) 22
5757 exceeds the 130-day threshold described in that 23
5858 paragraph— 24
5959 (A) the employing authority of the indi-25
6060 vidual shall, not later than 30 days after the 26
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6464 date of cessation of such special Government 1
6565 employee status— 2
6666 (i) determine the appropriate employ-3
6767 ment classification for the individual in ac-4
6868 cordance with applicable civil service laws 5
6969 and regulations, including which position 6
7070 the individual shall be considered to occupy 7
7171 beginning on the date of that determina-8
7272 tion; 9
7373 (ii) with respect to the individual, fol-10
7474 low an appropriate applicable Federal per-11
7575 sonnel framework in a manner consistent 12
7676 with the duties and responsibilities of the 13
7777 position in which the individual is serving 14
7878 as determined under clause (i) and with 15
7979 the personnel management policies of the 16
8080 employing authority; and 17
8181 (iii) provide written notice to the indi-18
8282 vidual— 19
8383 (I) of the new classification de-20
8484 termination required under clause (i); 21
8585 and 22
8686 (II) that the individual may ap-23
8787 peal or seek review of the new classi-24
8888 fication determination through appeal 25
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9292 and review procedures applicable to 1
9393 the position in which the individual is 2
9494 serving as determined under clause 3
9595 (i); and 4
9696 (B) the individual shall be subject to all 5
9797 applicable provisions of law, including legal obli-6
9898 gations and rights, relating to employees occu-7
9999 pying the position in which the individual is 8
100100 serving as determined under subparagraph 9
101101 (A)(i). 10
102102 (c) C
103103 OUNTINGDAYS OFSERVICE.—For purposes of 11
104104 subsection (b), 1 full day of service shall be counted to-12
105105 ward the 130-day limit described in subsection (b)(1) for 13
106106 each day— 14
107107 (1) during which an individual has provided any 15
108108 service as a special Government employee that is 16
109109 purely administrative in nature, such as making a 17
110110 brief telephone call to confirm the date of a meeting 18
111111 or completing and filing personnel paperwork, for 19
112112 more than 1 hour; 20
113113 (2) during which the individual has performed 21
114114 any service as a special Government employee, such 22
115115 as reading official materials or substantively pre-23
116116 paring for a meeting, that is not purely administra-24
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120120 tive in nature, regardless of the length of time spent 1
121121 performing such service; or 2
122122 (3) for which the individual has been com-3
123123 pensated by the Government for service as a special 4
124124 Government employee. 5
125125 SEC. 3. TRANSPARENCY FOR SPECIAL GOVERNMENT EM-6
126126 PLOYEES. 7
127127 (a) D
128128 EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
129129 (1) A
130130 DVISORY COMMITTEE .—The term ‘‘advi-9
131131 sory committee’’— 10
132132 (A) has the meaning given the term in sec-11
133133 tion 1001 of title 5, United States Code; and 12
134134 (B) does not include— 13
135135 (i) the United States DOGE Service, 14
136136 or any successor organization; 15
137137 (ii) the U.S. DOGE Service Tem-16
138138 porary Organization, or any successor or-17
139139 ganization; or 18
140140 (iii) any DOGE Team (as described in 19
141141 Executive Order 14158 (90 Fed. Reg. 20
142142 8441), relating to establishing and imple-21
143143 menting the President’s ‘‘Department of 22
144144 Government Efficiency’’), or any successor 23
145145 organization. 24
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149149 (2) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL PARTIES .— 1
150150 The term ‘‘appropriate congressional parties’’ 2
151151 means— 3
152152 (A) the Committee on Homeland Security 4
153153 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 5
154154 (B) the Committee on Oversight and Gov-6
155155 ernment Reform of the House of Representa-7
156156 tives; 8
157157 (C) the majority leader of the Senate; 9
158158 (D) the Speaker of the House of Rep-10
159159 resentatives; 11
160160 (E) the minority leader of the Senate; and 12
161161 (F) the minority leader of the House of 13
162162 Representatives. 14
163163 (3) C
164164 OVERED SPECIAL GOVERNMENT EM -15
165165 PLOYEE.—The term ‘‘covered special Government 16
166166 employee’’ means any individual— 17
167167 (A) who qualifies as a special Government 18
168168 employee under section 202(a) of title 18, 19
169169 United States Code, or any other provision of 20
170170 Federal law; and 21
171171 (B)(i) who is not serving on an advisory 22
172172 committee; 23
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176176 (ii) whose responsibilities are substantially 1
177177 comparable to the types of duties that are clas-2
178178 sified at the GS–11 level or above; and 3
179179 (iii) who is not appointed to a position in 4
180180 the civil service that may only be filled by a 5
181181 full-time student enrolled in an institution of 6
182182 higher education, as defined in section 102 of 7
183183 the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8
184184 1002). 9
185185 (4) D
186186 IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 10
187187 the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. 11
188188 (5) E
189189 XECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Executive 12
190190 agency’’— 13
191191 (A) has the meaning given the term in sec-14
192192 tion 105 of title 5, United States Code; and 15
193193 (B) includes the Executive Office of the 16
194194 President. 17
195195 (6) N
196196 ATIONAL DEFENSE INFORMATION .—The 18
197197 term ‘‘national defense information’’ has the mean-19
198198 ing given the term ‘‘classified information’’ in sec-20
199199 tion 798(b) of title 18, United States Code. 21
200200 (7) SGE
201201 DATABASE.—The term ‘‘SGE Data-22
202202 base’’ means the database established under sub-23
203203 section (b)(1). 24
204204 (b) SGE D
205205 ATABASE.— 25
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209209 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 210 days 1
210210 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director, 2
211211 in consultation with the Director of the Office of 3
212212 Government Ethics, shall establish a searchable, 4
213213 sortable database for the public release of, with re-5
214214 spect to each covered special Government em-6
215215 ployee— 7
216216 (A) the name of the covered special Gov-8
217217 ernment employee; 9
218218 (B) the title of the position of the covered 10
219219 special Government employee; 11
220220 (C) the rate of basic pay, if any, of the 12
221221 covered special Government employee; 13
222222 (D) the employing Executive agency of the 14
223223 covered special Government employee; 15
224224 (E) the employing organizational compo-16
225225 nent of the employing Executive agency of the 17
226226 covered special Government employee; 18
227227 (F) the appointment date of the covered 19
228228 special Government employee; and 20
229229 (G) if applicable, the termination date of 21
230230 the covered special Government employee. 22
231231 (2) P
232232 UBLIC AVAILABILITY.— 23
233233 (A) I
234234 N GENERAL.—The SGE Database 24
235235 shall be accessible to the public through the of-25
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239239 ficial website of the Office of Personnel Man-1
240240 agement without charge and without a require-2
241241 ment that users register for access. 3
242242 (B) R
243243 EQUIREMENTS.—The Director shall 4
244244 ensure that the SGE Database— 5
245245 (i) allows access through an applica-6
246246 tion programming interface; and 7
247247 (ii) is fully compliant with— 8
248248 (I) section 508 of the Rehabilita-9
249249 tion Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d); 10
250250 and 11
251251 (II) the most recent Web Content 12
252252 Accessibility Guidelines (or successor 13
253253 guidelines). 14
254254 (3) C
255255 URRENCY OF INFORMATION .—The head of 15
256256 each Executive agency shall— 16
257257 (A) notify the Director of each appoint-17
258258 ment, designation, conversion, termination, or 18
259259 other personnel action involving or affecting a 19
260260 covered special Government employee not later 20
261261 than 30 days after the date of such personnel 21
262262 action; and 22
263263 (B) from time to time, review information 23
264264 contained in the SGE Database that pertains to 24
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268268 that Executive agency to ensure that the infor-1
269269 mation is current, complete, and accurate. 2
270270 (4) O
271271 VERSIGHT OF SUBMISSIONS .— 3
272272 (A) I
273273 N GENERAL.—The Director shall con-4
274274 duct such periodic audits as may be necessary 5
275275 to ensure that Executive agencies have estab-6
276276 lished adequate procedures for submitting cur-7
277277 rent, complete, and accurate information relat-8
278278 ing to covered special Government employees 9
279279 for inclusion in the SGE Database. 10
280280 (B) R
281281 EPORT.—Not later than 3 years after 11
282282 the date of enactment of this Act, the Director 12
283283 shall submit a report to the appropriate con-13
284284 gressional parties that— 14
285285 (i) describes the efforts undertaken to 15
286286 comply with paragraph (1); and 16
287287 (ii) assesses the degree to which infor-17
288288 mation in the SGE Database is current, 18
289289 complete, and accurate. 19
290290 (c) P
291291 UBLICAVAILABILITY OFFINANCIALDISCLO-20
292292 SUREREPORTS.—Notwithstanding section 13109 of title 21
293293 5, United States Code, each Executive agency shall make 22
294294 publicly available any financial disclosure report filed by 23
295295 a covered special Government employee with the Executive 24
296296 agency after the date of enactment of this Act, using the 25
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300300 procedures established under section 13107 of title 5, 1
301301 United States Code, except that this subsection shall not 2
302302 apply to any financial disclosure report— 3
303303 (1) that is filed by an individual described in 4
304304 paragraph (1) or (2) of section 13107(a) of title 5, 5
305305 United States Code; 6
306306 (2) that is filed by a special Government em-7
307307 ployee who is not a covered special Government em-8
308308 ployee; or 9
309309 (3) that contains national defense information. 10
310310 Æ
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