S. 394 

One Hundred Sixteenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Friday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and twenty 

An Act 

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

of the executive power during Presidential transitions. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Presidential Transition Enhancement Act of 2019’’. 

SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ENHANCEMENTS. 

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

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

(1) in subsection (a)— 

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

‘‘upon request,’’ and all that follows through ‘‘including’’ 

and inserting ‘‘upon request, to each President-elect, each 

Vice-President-elect, and, for up to 60 days after the date 

of the inauguration of the President-elect and Vice-President-elect, each President and Vice President, for use in 

connection with the preparations for the assumption of 

official duties as President or Vice President necessary 

services and facilities, including’’; and 

(B) in paragraph (2)— 

(i) by inserting ‘‘, or an employee of a committee 

of either House of Congress, a joint committee of the 

Congress, or an individual Member of Congress,’’ after 

‘‘any branch of the Government’’; and 

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

in a position in the legislative branch, with the consent 

of the supervising Member of Congress’’ after ‘‘with 

the consent of the head of the agency’’; 

(2) by striking subsection (b) and inserting the following: 

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

of services and facilities under this section— 

‘‘(1) in connection with any obligation incurred by the President-elect or Vice-President-elect, or after the inauguration of 

the President-elect as President and the inauguration of the 

Vice-President-elect as Vice President incurred by the President 

or Vice President, during the period— 

‘‘(A) beginning on the day after the date of the general 

elections held to determine the electors of the President 

and Vice President under section 1 or 2 of title 3, United 

States Code; and 
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‘‘(B) ending on the date that is 60 days after the 

date of such inauguration; and 

‘‘(2) without regard to whether the President-elect, VicePresident-elect, President, or Vice President submits to the 

Administrator a request for payment regarding services or 

facilities before the end of such period.’’; 

(3) in subsection (h)(2)(B)(ii), by striking ‘‘computers’’ and 

inserting ‘‘information technology’’; and 

(4) By adding at the end the following: 

‘‘(i) MEMORANDUMS OF UNDERSTANDING.— 

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

during which a Presidential election occurs, the Administrator 

shall, to the maximum extent practicable, enter into a memorandum of understanding with each eligible candidate, which 

shall include, at a minimum, the conditions for the administrative support services and facilities described in subsection (a). 

‘‘(2) EXISTING RESOURCES.—To the maximum extent practicable, a memorandum of understanding entered into under 

paragraph (1) shall be based on memorandums of understanding relating to previous Presidential transitions. 

‘‘(3) TRANSITION REPRESENTATIVE.— 

‘‘(A) DESIGNATION OF REPRESENTATIVE FOR INQUIRIES.— 

Each memorandum of understanding entered into under 

this subsection shall designate a representative of the 

eligible candidate to whom the Administrator shall direct 

any inquiries or legal instruments regarding the records 

of the eligible candidate that are in the custody of the 

Administrator. 

‘‘(B) CHANGE IN TRANSITION REPRESENTATIVE.—The 

designation of a new individual as the transition representative of an eligible candidate shall not require the execution 

of a new memorandum of understanding under this subsection. 

‘‘(C) TERMINATION OF DESIGNATION.—The designation 

of a transition representative under a memorandum of 

understanding shall terminate— 

‘‘(i) not later than September 30 of the year during 

which the inauguration of the President-elect as President and the inauguration of the Vice-President-elect 

as Vice President occurs; or 

‘‘(ii) before the date described in clause (i), upon 

request of the President-elect or the Vice-Presidentelect or, after such inauguration, upon request of the 

President or the Vice President. 

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

of understanding entered into under this subsection shall be 

agreed to in writing. 

‘‘(5) PRIOR NOTIFICATION OF DEVIATION.—Each party to a 

memorandum of understanding entered into under this subsection shall provide written notice, except to the extent prohibited under another provision of law, not later than 3 days 

before taking any action that deviates from the terms and 

conditions agreed to in the memorandum of understanding. 

‘‘(6) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term ‘eligible candidate’ has the meaning given that term in subsection (h)(4).’’. 

(b) AGENCY TRANSITIONS.—Section 4 of the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102 note) is amended— 
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(1) in subsection (a)— 

(A) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

(B) by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5); 

and 

(C) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following: 

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

‘‘(A) means information from the Federal Government 

that a member of a transition team obtains as part of 

the employment of the member that such member knows 

or reasonably should know has not been made available 

to the general public; and 

‘‘(B) includes information that a member of the transition team knows or reasonably should know— 

‘‘(i) is exempt from disclosure under section 552 

of title 5, United States Code, or otherwise protected 

from disclosure by law; and 

‘‘(ii) is not authorized by the appropriate government agency or officials to be released to the public; 

and’’; 

(2) in subparagraphs (C) and (D) of subsection (e)(3), by 

inserting ‘‘serving in a career position’’ after ‘‘senior representative’’; 

(3) by striking subsection (f)(2) and inserting the following: 

‘‘(2) ACTING OFFICERS.—Not later than September 15 of 

a year during which a Presidential election occurs, and in 

accordance with subchapter III of chapter 33 of title 5, United 

States Code, the head of each agency shall ensure that a 

succession plan is in place for each senior noncareer position 

in the agency.’’; and 

(4) in subsection (g)— 

(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘November 1’’ and 

inserting ‘‘October 1’’; and 

(B) by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each memorandum of understanding under paragraph (1) shall include an agreement 

that the eligible candidate will implement and enforce an 

ethics plan to guide the conduct of the transition beginning 

on the date on which the eligible candidate becomes the 

President-elect. 

‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—The ethics plan shall include, at a 

minimum— 

‘‘(i) a description of the ethics requirements that 

will apply to all members of the transition team, 

including any specific requirement for transition team 

members who will have access to nonpublic or classified 

information; 

‘‘(ii) a description of how the transition team will— 

‘‘(I) address the role on the transition team 

of— 

‘‘(aa) lobbyists registered under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 

et seq.) and individuals who were former 

lobbyists registered under that Act; and 

‘‘(bb) persons registered under the Foreign 

Agents Registration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 
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611 et seq.), foreign nationals, and other foreign agents; 

‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team member with 

conflicts of interest similar to those applicable to 

Federal employees under section 2635.402(a) and 

section 2635.502(a) of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, related to current or former employment, 

affiliations, clients, or investments, from working 

on particular matters involving specific parties 

that affect the interests of such member; and 

‘‘(III) address how the covered eligible candidate will address his or her own conflicts of 

interest during a Presidential term if the covered 

eligible candidate becomes the President-elect; 

‘‘(iii) a Code of Ethical Conduct, which each 

member of the transition team will sign and be subject 

to, that reflects the content of the ethics plans under 

this paragraph and at a minimum requires transition 

team members to— 

‘‘(I) seek authorization from transition team 

leaders or their designees before seeking, on behalf 

of the transition, access to any nonpublic information; 

‘‘(II) keep confidential any nonpublic information provided in the course of the duties of the 

member with the transition and exclusively use 

such information for the purposes of the transition; 

and 

‘‘(III) not use any nonpublic information provided in the course of transition duties, in any 

manner, for personal or private gain for the 

member or any other party at any time during 

or after the transition; and 

‘‘(iv) a description of how the transition team will 

enforce the Code of Ethical Conduct, including the 

names of the members of the transition team responsible for enforcement, oversight, and compliance. 

‘‘(C) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.—The transition team shall 

make the ethics plan described in this paragraph publicly 

available on the internet website of the General Services-
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Administration the earlier of— 

‘‘(i) the day on which the memorandum of understanding is completed; or 

‘‘(ii) October 1.’’. 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.