Post-Employment Cooling-Off Periods Under 18 U.S.C. § 207

The post-employment cooling-off periods under 18 U.S.C. § 207 are tiered by what you did in government and how senior you were: a lifetime ban on any specific matter you personally worked on, a two-year ban on matters that fell under your official responsibility, and, for senior and very senior officials, an additional one- or two-year ban on contacting your former agency (or, at the top tier, much of the executive branch) about anything at all. Every restriction targets the same act: communicating with the federal government on someone else’s behalf with intent to influence official action. None of them stops you from taking a private-sector job. They limit what you can say, to whom, and about what, once you get there.

Lifetime Ban on Matters You Personally Handled

The strictest restriction never expires. If you worked personally and substantially on a specific matter involving identifiable parties while in government, you can never contact any federal agency or court about that same matter on someone else’s behalf.¹

“Personally and substantially” means real involvement: a decision, recommendation, investigation, or advisory role. Rubber-stamping a form or routing a file does not count. The matter also has to have involved specific parties at the time you handled it. A negotiation with a named company qualifies. A licensing dispute over one applicant qualifies. Writing a rule that applies to an entire industry does not, because general rulemaking lacks the specific-party element.¹

The ban follows you across all of government. If you managed a Defense Department contract with a particular vendor, you cannot contact Treasury, Justice, or a federal court about that same contract on the vendor’s behalf. The prohibited act is the communication itself, made with intent to influence, regardless of which agency door you walk through.

Two-Year Ban on Matters Under Your Official Responsibility

Even matters you never personally touched can be off-limits for two years after you leave, if they fell within your official responsibility during your final year of service.¹ Official responsibility means you had authority to approve, direct, or supervise the work. A division chief who oversaw ten contract officers is covered for every contract those officers were handling during her final year, even if she never opened a file herself.

A matter counts as pending under your responsibility if it was referred to you for assignment or was under consideration by someone you supervised. It did not need to be actively worked on the day you left. A dormant investigation sitting in a subordinate’s queue still qualifies, and no minimum length of pending time is required.² The two-year clock runs from your departure date, and the ban covers communications with any federal agency or court, not just your former one. As with the lifetime ban, general policy work is excluded; the matter must have involved identifiable parties.

One-Year Agency Ban for Senior Officials

Senior officials face something broader than the matter-specific restrictions. Under § 207(c), a senior official cannot, for one year after leaving, contact anyone in the agency where she served during her final year of employment with intent to influence any official action. This is not tied to specific matters. Any communication meant to influence any decision by that agency is off-limits.³

You fall into this tier if your basic pay equals or exceeds 86.5 percent of the rate for Level II of the Executive Schedule. For 2026, Level II pays $228,000, putting the threshold at $197,220.⁴ Members of the Senior Executive Service are automatically covered regardless of the pay calculation.³

The scope is agency-specific. A former senior Commerce Department official under this restriction cannot call anyone at Commerce, but can contact Defense or another agency on behalf of a client. The one-year period runs from the date of departure.

Two-Year Government-Wide Ban for Very Senior Officials

The highest-ranking officials get a longer, wider version of the same restriction. Under § 207(d), the cooling-off period is two years, and the reach extends well past the former official’s own agency.¹ The tier covers the Vice President, Cabinet-level officials paid at Level I of the Executive Schedule, senior White House staff paid at Level II, and certain other presidential and vice-presidential appointees.

For two years, a former very senior official cannot contact anyone in her former department or agency, and cannot contact any official at the top five levels of the Executive Schedule anywhere in the executive branch. A former Cabinet secretary, for example, cannot call other Cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries, or undersecretaries at any federal agency to seek official action for a private client.¹

One-Year Ban on Trade and Treaty Negotiations

A separate one-year restriction applies to anyone who personally and substantially participated in an ongoing trade or treaty negotiation during her final year of government service.¹ This one reaches further than the others. You cannot represent, aid, or advise anyone about that negotiation based on nonpublic information you obtained through your role, even without contacting the government at all.

The statute defines “trade negotiation” narrowly as one the President has formally decided to undertake for a trade agreement, and “treaty” as an international agreement requiring Senate advice and consent. Preliminary discussions that have not reached the formal negotiation stage fall outside the ban.

One-Year Ban on Representing Foreign Governments

Former senior and very senior officials also face a one-year ban on representing or advising foreign governments and foreign political parties with intent to influence U.S. government decisions.⁵ It runs alongside the general cooling-off periods but addresses a separate concern: diplomatic and national security integrity.

“Foreign entity” here means a foreign government or a foreign political party, using the Foreign Agents Registration Act’s definitions. It does not include foreign-owned commercial corporations. A former senior official who consults for a multinational headquartered abroad is not violating this section, though the general cooling-off period may still limit whom she can contact.

Former Members of Congress and Senior Staff

Section 207 also reaches the legislative branch. Former Senators face a two-year ban on lobbying any member, officer, or employee of either chamber. Former House members face a one-year ban with the same scope.⁶

Senior legislative staff are covered too. Former senior Senate staffers face a one-year ban on contacting any Senator, officer, or employee of the Senate. Former House personal staff at qualifying pay levels face a one-year ban on contacting their old boss and that member’s staff. Committee staff above the threshold face a one-year ban on contacting any member or employee of the committee where they served.⁶

What You Can Still Do

The restrictions bar communications and appearances made with intent to influence. Several kinds of work fall outside that line.

Behind-the-Scenes Work

Nothing in § 207 stops you from helping a new employer internally, as long as you do not communicate with or appear before a government employee. You can prepare strategy memos, draft documents, advise on whom to contact and what to say, and analyze government proposals, provided someone else makes the actual contact.⁷ One caution: if a report or document is clearly attributable to you and you know it will be presented to government officials, that can be treated as a communication by you even if someone else delivers it. The question is whether you intended the information to be attributed to you personally.

Scientific and Technological Information

The cooling-off restrictions under subsections (a), (c), and (d) do not apply to communications made solely to provide scientific or technological information. The communication must either follow procedures the agency has approved, or the agency head must certify (in consultation with the Office of Government Ethics and published in the Federal Register) that the former employee has outstanding qualifications in a technical discipline, the matter requires those qualifications, and the national interest would be served.¹

Sworn Testimony

You are not prohibited from giving testimony under oath or making statements under penalty of perjury in judicial, administrative, or other legally recognized proceedings.⁸ Expert witness work is treated differently. If the lifetime ban under § 207(a)(1) applies to the underlying matter, you can serve as an expert witness only if called by the United States or authorized by a court order. A subpoena alone does not count as a court order for this purpose.

Get Written Ethics Advice Before You Act

The safest step for any departing federal employee is a written opinion before accepting a role or making a contact. Every agency has a Designated Agency Ethics Official who can advise on which restrictions apply to you. The DAEO is your first point of contact; the Office of Government Ethics has said it will not normally issue formal advisory opinions on questions a DAEO can handle.⁹

Good-faith reliance on informal ethics advice does not technically guarantee immunity from prosecution, but the Department of Justice considers it when deciding whether to bring a case. Good-faith reliance on a formal advisory opinion issued by the Office of Government Ethics is stronger: the Department of Justice will not prosecute you for conduct taken in reliance on it.¹⁰ The informal advice is a practical shield; the formal opinion is a legal one.

Penalties for Violations

Violating § 207 is a federal crime. A non-willful violation carries up to one year in prison and a fine. A willful violation carries up to five years. On the civil side, the Attorney General can seek a penalty of up to $50,000 per violation or the amount of compensation the person received for the prohibited conduct, whichever is greater.¹¹ For a former official earning significant consulting fees, the compensation-based measure can far exceed the $50,000 cap. The Attorney General can also seek a civil injunction to stop ongoing or future violations.

Private employers face exposure too. Anyone who aids or encourages a violation of § 207 can be prosecuted as a principal under federal aiding-and-abetting law.¹⁰ A company that hires a former procurement official and directs her to call her old colleagues about an active contract is not just creating a problem for the individual. Agencies can also pursue administrative remedies, including suspension and debarment from federal procurement and nonprocurement transactions, and are required to report credible allegations of § 207 violations to the Attorney General.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 207 – Restrictions on Former Officers, Employees, and Elected Officials of the Executive and Legislative Branches
2
eCFR. 5 CFR 2641.202 – Two-Year Restriction on Representations Concerning Particular Matter for Which the Employee Had Official Responsibility
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 207 – Restrictions on Former Officers, Employees, and Elected Officials of the Executive and Legislative Branches – Section: One-Year Restrictions on Certain Senior Personnel
4
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Salary Table No. 2026-EX
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 207 – Restrictions on Former Officers, Employees, and Elected Officials of the Executive and Legislative Branches – Section: Restrictions Relating to Foreign Entities
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 207 – Restrictions on Former Officers, Employees, and Elected Officials of the Executive and Legislative Branches
7
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 2641 Subpart B – Prohibitions
8
GovInfo. 5 CFR Part 2641 Subpart C – Exceptions, Waivers, andடseparate Components
9
eCFR. 5 CFR 2638.209 – Formal Advisory Opinions
10
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 2641 – Post-Employment Conflict of Interest Restrictions
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 216 – Penalties and Injunctions