Federal Advisors Get a 130-Day Clock: New Bill Limits Temporary Government Workers and Mandates Public Financial Disclosures

This bill, the Special Government Employees Transparency Act of 2025, sets a hard limit on how long people can work as "special Government employees" (SGEs)—the high-level advisors and experts often brought in temporarily by the executive branch. Specifically, SGEs can only serve for 130 days within any 365-day period. If they hit that cap, the agency has 30 days to reclassify them into a standard, permanent civil service position, complete with all the standard rules and protections. Beyond the time limit, the bill also mandates the creation of a public, searchable database listing these employees and requires most of them to publicly disclose their financial statements.

The 130-Day Rule: When Temporary Becomes Permanent

The core change here is the strict time limit (SEC. 2). Agencies often use SGE status to bring in outside experts—say, a cybersecurity specialist or a logistics consultant—without having to go through the lengthy civil service hiring process. This bill ensures that status is truly temporary. The rule is tough: if you spend even one hour on non-administrative work, that counts as a full day toward the 130-day limit. For agencies that rely on these experts for long-term projects, this means they’ll have to plan carefully or face losing their consultants mid-project.

If an SGE hits the 130-day mark, they aren't fired; they are automatically pushed into the standard civil service system. This is a big deal for the employees themselves. They gain the rights, protections, and appeal procedures of a career government worker, which is a significant shift from the flexible, temporary SGE status. However, it also means agencies face a new administrative burden: they have to quickly determine the correct permanent job classification and salary for someone who was initially hired outside the standard system.

Public Database and Financial Transparency

Section 3 of the bill focuses on shining a light on these high-level temporary workers. It requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to create a public, searchable database listing all "Covered SGEs." A Covered SGE is essentially a temporary worker whose duties are at the GS-11 pay grade or higher and who isn't on an advisory committee. This database will list their name, job title, pay, and the agency they work for. For the public and watchdog groups, this is a major win for accountability, making it easier to track who is advising the government and for how long.

Even more impactful is the requirement for financial disclosure (SEC. 3). Currently, some SGE financial reports can be kept private. This bill mandates that Executive agencies must now make the financial disclosure reports of Covered SGEs publicly available. The idea is to ensure that the public knows whether these high-level advisors have any financial conflicts of interest related to the policies they are helping to shape. The only major exception is if the report contains "National defense information," which could be a potential loophole if agencies interpret that phrase too broadly to shield sensitive data.