SEC Revolving Door Restriction Act of 2015

Summary: SEC Revolving Door Restriction Act of 2015 This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to subject to federal criminal penalties for bribery, graft, and conflicts of interest an ex-employee of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who, within one year after ending employment with the SEC, works for any company or individual against whom the SEC brought an enforcement action (or a related waiver) within the previous 18 months and the ex-employee participated in that action.  Any employee who seeks to work for such a company or individual must first receive an ethics opinion from the SEC on whether permission to do so should be granted.  Non-professional SEC staff are exempt from this employment prohibition.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``SEC Revolving Door Restriction Act 
of 2015''.

SEC. 2. ONE-YEAR EMPLOYMENT RESTRICTION RELATED TO ENFORCEMENT MATTERS.

    (a) In General.--The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a 
et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 4E the following new 
section:

``SEC. 4F. ONE-YEAR EMPLOYMENT RESTRICTION RELATED TO ENFORCEMENT 
              MATTERS AND REQUIRED ETHICS OPINIONS.

    ``(a) One-Year Employment Restriction.--Any person who is an 
employee of the Commission and who, within 1 year after the termination 
of such employment with the Commission, works for any company or 
individual against whom the Commission brought an enforcement action, 
where such action (or a waiver related to such action) was brought 
within the previous 18 months and was participated on by such person, 
shall be subject to the same penalties as provided for in section 216 
of title 18, United States Code, for offenses described in that 
section.
    ``(b) Required Ethics Opinion.--
            ``(1) In general.--Any person who is an employee of the 
        Commission and who, within 1 year after the termination of such 
        employment with the Commission, seeks to work for any company 
        or individual against whom the Commission brought an 
        enforcement action (or issued a waiver related to such action) 
        where such action (or waiver) was participated on by such 
        person, shall first receive an ethics opinion from the 
        Commission.
            ``(2) Ethics opinion.--
                    ``(A) Content.--The ethics opinion described in 
                paragraph (1) shall include a determination of whether 
                such person should be permitted to work for such 
                company or individual.
                    ``(B) Determination requirements.--The Commission 
                may not determine, under subparagraph (A), that such 
                person should be permitted to work for such company or 
                individual unless the Commission finds that--
                            ``(i) there would be no appearance of 
                        impropriety for such person to work for such 
                        company or individual;
                            ``(ii) no material advantage would be 
                        gained by such company or individual because 
                        such person participated on an enforcement 
                        action (or a waiver related to such action); 
                        and
                            ``(iii) the integrity of any ongoing 
                        enforcement action participated on by such 
                        person is not diminished by such person going 
                        to work for such company or individual.
                    ``(C) Regulations.--The Chairman of the Commission 
                shall provide for regulations for the issuance of 
                ethics opinions under this subsection.
            ``(3) Penalties.--A person shall be subject to the same 
        penalties as provided for in section 216 of title 18, United 
        States Code, for offenses described in that section, if such 
        person--
                    ``(A) receives an ethics opinion under paragraph 
                (1), where such ethics opinion states that such person 
                should not be permitted to work for a particular 
                company or individual; and
                    ``(B) within 1 year after the termination of such 
                person's employment with the Commission, the person 
                works for such company or individual.
    ``(c) Exception for Non-Professional Staff.--The provisions of this 
section shall not apply to a person who is a non-professional staff 
employee of the Commission.
    ``(d) Definitions.--For purposes of this section:
            ``(1) Enforcement action.--The term `enforcement action' 
        means such court actions, administrative proceedings, 
        Commission opinions, and other actions, as the Commission may 
        determine appropriate.
            ``(2) Participated on.--With respect to an enforcement 
        action (or a waiver related to such action) and a person, the 
        term `participated on' means the person either--
                    ``(A) participated personally in the enforcement 
                action (or waiver related to such action); or
                    ``(B) knew or reasonably should have known that the 
                enforcement action (or waiver related to such action) 
                was under his or her official responsibility as an 
                employee of the Commission.
            ``(3) Work for.--The term `work for' means--
                    ``(A) employed by;
                    ``(B) volunteers for;
                    ``(C) lobbies on behalf of; or
                    ``(D) consults for.''.
    (b) Report.--One year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission shall submit a 
report to the Congress analyzing the impact that the provisions of this 
Act have had on recruitment and retention of employees by the 
Securities and Exchange Commission.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.