Sponsors (14)
Introduced April 10, 2025 by Elizabeth Warren · Last progress April 10, 2025
The bill tightens SGE ethics rules and greatly increases public disclosure and agency oversight to reduce conflicts and corporate influence, but it does so at the cost of greater privacy and administrative burdens, potential legal uncertainty, added government costs, and a likely reduction in outside experts willing to serve.
Taxpayers, the public, and watchdogs: public posting of SGE financial disclosures, waiver notices, names, and service durations plus a centralized searchable database makes it easier to detect and monitor conflicts of interest.
Federal employees and agency ethics officials: stronger conflict-of-interest safeguards—clarifying SGEs are subject to 18 U.S.C. §208, narrowing exemptions, giving ethics officers verification authority, and applying full ethics rules after 60 days—reduces the risk of biased decision-making.
Agencies and the public: standardized, centralized recordkeeping and clearer implementation duties (posted waivers, coordinated OGE database) improve oversight consistency across federal agencies.
Special Government employees (SGEs) and some federal employees: broader public disclosure requirements and more required filings increase privacy exposure and administrative burden for part‑time advisers and other SGEs.
Agencies, taxpayers, and the public: stricter conflict rules, communication limits, and shorter tolerances for long-serving SGEs could shrink the pool of willing outside experts, slowing policymaking and raising recruiting costs or reducing expertise available to agencies.
Special Government employees and companies: ambiguous definitions (e.g., 'particular matter,' ownership, market‑share criteria) and stronger §208 enforcement risk legal uncertainty and potential criminal exposure for SGEs.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Expands ethics rules and public disclosure for special Government employees, restricts certain SGE interactions with large companies, and applies full ethics rules after set day thresholds.
Tightens ethics rules and public disclosure for special Government employees (SGEs). It narrows when SGEs may participate in matters that affect organizations they serve, requires quicker public posting of waivers, creates a public searchable database of many SGEs and their days served, and treats long‑serving SGEs more like regular employees for federal ethics rules. The bill adds new prohibitions and disclosure duties: it bars certain SGEs who are owners or senior executives of large companies from official communications with agencies that regulate or contract with those companies, requires agencies and OGE to publish SGE waivers and database records, and applies full federal ethics provisions to SGEs who serve above set day thresholds (60 and 130 days in a 365‑day period).