II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 394 

To amend the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 to improve the orderly 

transfer of the executive power during Presidential transitions. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 7, 2019 

Mr. JOHNSON (for himself, Mr. CARPER, and Ms. HASSAN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 to improve 

the orderly transfer of the executive power during Presidential transitions. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Presidential Transition 

5 Enhancement Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ENHANCEMENTS. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3 of the Presidential 

8 Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102 note) is amended— 

9 (1) in subsection (a)— 


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1 (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 

2 by striking ‘‘upon request,’’ and all that follows 

3 through ‘‘including’’ and inserting ‘‘upon re4 quest, to each President-elect, each Vice-Presi5 dent-elect, and, for up to 60 days after the date 

6 of the inauguration of the President-elect and 

7 Vice-President-elect, each President and Vice 

8 President, for use in connection with the prep9 arations for the assumption of official duties as 

10 President or Vice President necessary services 

11 and facilities, including’’; and 

12 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

13 (i) by inserting ‘‘, or an employee of 

14 a committee of either House of Congress, 

15 a joint committee of the Congress, or an 

16 individual Member of Congress,’’ after 

17 ‘‘any branch of the Government’’; and 

18 (ii) by inserting ‘‘, or in the case of an 

19 employee in a position in the legislative 

20 branch, with the consent of the supervising 

21 Member of Congress’’ after ‘‘with the con22 sent of the head of the agency’’; 

23 (2) by striking subsection (b) and inserting the 

24 following: 


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1 ‘‘(b) The Administrator shall expend funds for the 

2 provision of services and facilities under this section— 

3 ‘‘(1) in connection with any obligation incurred 

4 by the President-elect or Vice-President-elect, or 

5 after the inauguration of the President-elect as 

6 President and the inauguration of the Vice-Presi7 dent-elect as Vice President incurred by the Presi8 dent or Vice President, during the period— 

9 ‘‘(A) beginning on the day after the date 

10 of the general elections held to determine the 

11 electors of the President and Vice President 

12 under section 1 or 2 of title 3, United States 

13 Code; and 

14 ‘‘(B) ending on the date that is 60 days 

15 after the date of such inauguration; and 

16 ‘‘(2) without regard to whether the President17 elect, Vice-President-elect, President, or Vice Presi18 dent submits to the Administrator a request for pay19 ment regarding services or facilities before the end 

20 of such period.’’; 

21 (3) in subsection (h)(2)(B)(ii), by striking 

22 ‘‘computers’’ and inserting ‘‘information tech23 nology’’; and 

24 (4) By adding at the end the following: 

25 ‘‘(i) MEMORANDUMS OF UNDERSTANDING.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than September 

2 1 of a year during which a Presidential election oc3 curs, the Administrator shall, to the maximum ex4 tent practicable, enter into a memorandum of under5 standing with each eligible candidate, which shall in6 clude, at a minimum, the conditions for the adminis7 trative support services and facilities described in 

8 subsection (a). 

9 ‘‘(2) EXISTING RESOURCES.—To the maximum 

10 extent practicable, a memorandum of understanding 

11 entered into under paragraph (1) shall be based on 

12 memorandums of understanding relating to previous 

13 Presidential transitions. 

14 ‘‘(3) TRANSITION REPRESENTATIVE.— 

15 ‘‘(A) DESIGNATION OF REPRESENTATIVE

16 FOR INQUIRIES.—Each memorandum of under17 standing entered into under this subsection 

18 shall designate a representative of the eligible 

19 candidate to whom the Administrator shall di20 rect any inquiries or legal instruments regard21 ing the records of the eligible candidate that are 

22 in the custody of the Administrator. 

23 ‘‘(B) CHANGE IN TRANSITION REPRESENT24 ATIVE.—The designation of a new individual as 

25 the transition representative of an eligible canVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:19 Feb 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S394.IS S394

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1 didate shall not require the execution of a new 

2 memorandum of understanding under this sub3 section. 

4 ‘‘(C) TERMINATION OF DESIGNATION.— 

5 The designation of a transition representative 

6 under a memorandum of understanding shall 

7 terminate— 

8 ‘‘(i) not later than September 30 of 

9 the year during which the inauguration of 

10 the President-elect as President and the 

11 inauguration of the Vice-President-elect as 

12 Vice President occurs; or 

13 ‘‘(ii) before the date described in 

14 clause (i), upon request of the President15 elect or the Vice-President-elect or, after 

16 such inauguration, upon request of the 

17 President or the Vice President. 

18 ‘‘(4) AMENDMENTS.—Any amendment to a 

19 memorandum of understanding entered into under 

20 this subsection shall be agreed to in writing. 

21 ‘‘(5) PRIOR NOTIFICATION OF DEVIATION.— 

22 Each party to a memorandum of understanding en23 tered into under this subsection shall provide written 

24 notice, except to the extent prohibited under another 

25 provision of law, not later than 3 days before taking 


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1 any action that deviates from the terms and condi2 tions agreed to in the memorandum of under3 standing. 

4 ‘‘(6) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 

5 ‘eligible candidate’ has the meaning given that term 

6 in subsection (h)(4).’’. 

7 (b) AGENCY TRANSITIONS.—Section 4 of the Presi8 dential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102 note) is 

9 amended— 

10 (1) in subsection (a)— 

11 (A) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 

12 the end; 

13 (B) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 

14 paragraph (5); and 

15 (C) by inserting after paragraph (3) the 

16 following: 

17 ‘‘(4) the term ‘nonpublic information’— 

18 ‘‘(A) means information from the Federal 

19 Government that a member of a transition team 

20 obtains as part of the employment of the mem21 ber that such member knows or reasonably 

22 should know has not been made available to the 

23 general public; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) includes information that a member 

2 of the transition team knows or reasonably 

3 should know— 

4 ‘‘(i) is exempt from disclosure under 

5 section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 

6 or otherwise protected from disclosure by 

7 law; and 

8 ‘‘(ii) is not authorized by the appro9 priate government agency or officials to be 

10 released to the public; and’’; 

11 (2) in subparagraphs (C) and (D) of subsection 

12 (e)(3), by inserting ‘‘serving in a career position’’ 

13 after ‘‘senior representative’’; 

14 (3) by striking subsection (f)(2) and inserting 

15 the following: 

16 ‘‘(2) ACTING OFFICERS.—Not later than Sep17 tember 15 of a year during which a Presidential 

18 election occurs, and in accordance with subchapter 

19 III of chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code, the 

20 head of each agency shall ensure that a succession 

21 plan is in place for each senior noncareer position in 

22 the agency.’’; and 

23 (4) in subsection (g)— 

24 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘Novem25 ber 1’’ and inserting ‘‘October 1’’; and 


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1 (B) by adding at the end the following: 

2 ‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 

3 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each memorandum of 

4 understanding under paragraph (1) shall in5 clude an agreement that the eligible candidate 

6 will implement and enforce an ethics plan to 

7 guide the conduct of the transition beginning on 

8 the date on which the eligible candidate be9 comes the President-elect. 

10 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—The ethics plan shall 

11 include, at a minimum— 

12 ‘‘(i) a description of the ethics re13 quirements that will apply to all members 

14 of the transition team, including any spe15 cific requirement for transition team mem16 bers who will have access to nonpublic or 

17 classified information; 

18 ‘‘(ii) a description of how the transi19 tion team will— 

20 ‘‘(I) address the role on the tran21 sition team of— 

22 ‘‘(aa) lobbyists registered 

23 under the Lobbying Disclosure 

24 Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et 

25 seq.) and individuals who were 


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1 former lobbyists registered under 

2 that Act; and 

3 ‘‘(bb) persons registered 

4 under the Foreign Agents Reg5 istration Act (22 U.S.C. 611 et 

6 seq.), foreign nationals, and other 

7 foreign agents; 

8 ‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team 

9 member with conflicts of interest simi10 lar to those applicable to Federal em11 ployees under section 2635.402(a) 

12 and section 2635.502(a) of title 5, 

13 Code of Federal Regulations, related 

14 to current or former employment, af15 filiations, clients, or investments, from 

16 working on particular matters involv17 ing specific parties that affect the in18 terests of such member; and 

19 ‘‘(III) address how the covered 

20 eligible candidate will address his or 

21 her own conflicts of interest during a 

22 Presidential term if the covered eligi23 ble candidate becomes the President24 elect; 


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1 ‘‘(iii) a Code of Ethical Conduct, 

2 which each member of the transition team 

3 will sign and be subject to, that reflects 

4 the content of the ethics plans under this 

5 paragraph and at a minimum requires 

6 transition team members to— 

7 ‘‘(I) seek authorization from 

8 transition team leaders or their des9 ignees before seeking, on behalf of the 

10 transition, access to any nonpublic in11 formation; 

12 ‘‘(II) keep confidential any non13 public information provided in the 

14 course of the duties of the member 

15 with the transition and exclusively use 

16 such information for the purposes of 

17 the transition; and 

18 ‘‘(III) not use any nonpublic in19 formation provided in the course of 

20 transition duties, in any manner, for 

21 personal or private gain for the mem22 ber or any other party at any time 

23 during or after the transition; and 

24 ‘‘(iv) a description of how the transi25 tion team will enforce the Code of Ethical 


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1 Conduct, including the names of the mem2 bers of the transition team responsible for 

3 enforcement, oversight, and compliance. 

4 ‘‘(C) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.—The transi5 tion team shall make the ethics plan described 

6 in this paragraph publicly available on the 

7 Internet website of the General Services Admin8 istration the earlier of— 

9 ‘‘(i) the day on which the memo10 randum of understanding is completed; or 

11 ‘‘(ii) October 1.’’. 

Æ 


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