Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, FEDERAL LEGISLATION—Democrats introduce legislation restricting special government employees, (Apr 16, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:American Federation of Government Employees | Campaign Legal Center | Citizens Responsibility and Ethics in Washington | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau | National Labor Relations Board | National Treasury Employees Union | Project on Government Oversight | Public Citizen | State Democracy Defenders
By Nora Macaluso
The SGE Ethics Enforcement & Reform (SEER) Act would put limits on Elon Musk’s communications with government agencies and require him to abide by conflict-of-interest rules.
Democrats in the House and Senate introduced legislation that would put limits on the activities of special government employees (SGEs), a category that includes Elon Musk.
“Unelected billionaire Elon Musk should not be acting as co-president of the United States and making $8 million a day from government contracts while he’s at it,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the Senate bill’s sponsor. “My new bill would crack down on conflicts of interest and create stronger ethics rules for Elon Musk and all Special Government Employees.”
Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), House sponsor of the SGE Ethics Enforcement & Reform (SEER) Act of 2025, said the bill would “ensure the Trump Administration and people like Elon Musk cannot take advantage of the system and that there are strict rules and legal consequences in place to hold them accountable.”
“For months Elon Musk has dismantled federal agencies, fired thousands of federal workers, data-mined American data, and set himself up to make billions of dollars in federal contracts—all while acting as a Special Government Employee,” Stansbury said.
SGEs are temporary federal employees limited to working 130 days per year. Musk and some of his staff at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are in this category, and as such are able “to be paid by private companies while they work to dismantle federal agencies,” a press release from Warren’s office said.
Among other provisions, the bill would expand existing ethics rules to SGEs, prohibit leaders of large companies from communicating with agencies that contract with, regulate, or conduct enforcement actions against their companies, and require SGEs to resolve conflicts of interest. It would also allow the public to access SGEs’ financial disclosure forms and conflict-of-interest waivers.
These rules would bar Musk from communicating with agencies that his company works with or may be affected by, such as the Space Force, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the National Labor Relations Board; block him from participating in portions of projects that overlap with his financial interests; and require him to file a financial disclosure form.
“The Trump Administration’s use of this special designation to install people with potential conflicts in high-level government jobs with no accountability may have begun with Elon Musk – but it goes way beyond Musk,” said Jon Golinger, democracy advocate at Public Citizen, which supports the legislation. "The public now has no way to know whether special government employees who don’t file public financial disclosure reports or are empowered to oversee themselves are putting the people’s interests ahead of their own.”
SGEs “should not be allowed to operate outside of the bounds of ethics or transparency rules” said Debra Perlin, vice president for policy at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO), State Democracy Defenders, Campaign Legal Center, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) also support the bill, according to Warren.
Lawmakers co-sponsoring the legislation include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in the Senate, and Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) in the House.
Companies: American Federation of Government Employees; Campaign Legal Center; Citizens Responsibility and Ethics in Washington; National Treasury Employees Union; Project on Government Oversight; Public Citizen; State Democracy Defenders
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