Sponsors (5)
The bill strengthens transparency and closes ethics loopholes for special Government employees—improving oversight and reducing undue private influence—at the cost of higher administrative burdens, privacy risks, potential legal complexity, and the possibility that tougher disclosure and interaction limits will deter some outside experts from serving.
Federal employees and agencies: long‑serving special Government employees (SGEs) will be subject to the same criminal and ethics prohibitions as regular staff after defined service thresholds, closing loopholes and reducing improper outside influence on federal decisions.
Taxpayers, watchdogs, and the public will gain substantially greater transparency through searchable, standardized public disclosures (including timely waiver postings and a downloadable SGE database listing names and service durations), improving oversight and accountability of SGE usage.
Agencies and ethics offices get clearer, more uniform conflict‑of‑interest rules and OGE guidance (including definitions around ownership and when advisory‑committee chairs/vice‑chairs face stricter rules), which should reduce ambiguity and promote consistent enforcement across agencies.
Private‑sector experts, nonprofit leaders, and some experienced advisers may be deterred from serving as SGEs because of broader disclosure, publicity of waivers, tighter restrictions on communications, and expanded ethics coverage—reducing the pool of outside expertise available to agencies.
Agencies, ethics offices, and SGEs will face increased administrative and compliance costs (building/maintaining a searchable database, meeting disclosure deadlines, tracking days of service, reviewing exemptions and filings), with those costs ultimately borne by agencies and taxpayers.
Expanded public disclosure obligations create tangible privacy and reputational concerns for SGEs (naming, financial filings, waiver publicity), which could chill participation or expose individuals to intrusive scrutiny.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Tightens ethics rules for special Government employees: expands conflict coverage, requires public disclosure and a searchable SGE database, restricts contacts with defined large companies, and applies regular ethics rules after set service thresholds.
Introduced April 10, 2025 by Melanie Ann Stansbury · Last progress April 10, 2025
Strengthens ethics and disclosure rules for special Government employees (SGEs) by expanding conflict-of-interest coverage, requiring public financial-disclosure and a searchable database of covered SGEs, restricting official communications between certain SGEs and large companies they own or lead, and treating SGEs who serve longer periods like regular federal employees. It also tightens when SGEs must follow standard federal ethics restrictions and requires proactive publication of waivers for covered SGEs.