Executive Order 13488: Granting Reciprocity on Excepted Service and Federal Contractor Employee Fitness and Reinvestigating Individuals in Positions of Public Trust
President: George W. Bush
Directed reciprocal use of suitable background checks for excepted-service and contractor fitness decisions.
Status: Completed/expired. Is Executive Order 13488 still in effect? No. Executive Order 13488 is completed or expired. See Federal Register record.
What does Executive Order 13488 do?
EO 13764 amended EO 13488 in January 2017 as part of a revised executive-wide vetting framework.
Before and after
Before the order
Agencies repeated some personnel investigations across different employment categories.
After the order
EO 13764 amended EO 13488 in January 2017 as part of a revised executive-wide vetting framework.
Reciprocity applies within specified vetting standards and exceptions; it is not automatic eligibility for every post.
Who had to do what
| Agency / office | Action | Timing / position |
|---|---|---|
| Agency heads / gaining federal agencies | Set fitness criteria and decide equivalence to OPM suitability standards, taking OPM guidance into account. Recognize prior favorable fitness or suitability decisions when both criteria sets meet OPM standards and employment has been continuous, subject to exceptions for higher investigation requirements, new adverse information or incompatibility with core duties. Report background-investigation and fitness results, including later changes, to OPM consistent with law. | Effective January 16, 2009; applies to newly appointed excepted-service employees and newly hired contractor employees beginning 90 days later; recognition when deciding fitness. |
| Director of the Office of Personnel Management | Determine public-trust reinvestigation standards, including frequency. Exercise delegated implementation authority and issue suitability regulations and guidance or fitness guidance as appropriate. | Effective upon issuance; reinvestigation frequency determined by OPM, with no fixed interval in the order. |
| Later action | EO 13764 amended EO 13488 in January 2017 as part of a revised executive-wide vetting framework. | January 17, 2017 |
What happened next
EO 13488 signed.
EO 13764 amended EO 13488 in January 2017 as part of a revised executive-wide vetting framework.
Legal and source detail
How it works legally
Reciprocity applies within specified vetting standards and exceptions; it is not automatic eligibility for every post.
Sources by type
If a source is unavailable, first check the cited publisher or another official repository. The cited publisher remains the authority.
Primary and official sources
Orders, laws, court records and official implementation material.
- GovInfo — official executive-order record (opens in a new tab) Official record
How we checked this
Last checked against the sources above on September 26, 2026. How we research →