IC 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 394 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

AUGUST 2, 2019 

Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform 

AN ACT 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

3 Enhancement Act of 2019’’. 

4 SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ENHANCEMENTS. 

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

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

7 (1) in subsection (a)— 

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

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

10 through ‘‘including’’ and inserting ‘‘upon re11 quest, to each President-elect, each Vice-Presi12 dent-elect, and, for up to 60 days after the date 

13 of the inauguration of the President-elect and 

14 Vice-President-elect, each President and Vice 

15 President, for use in connection with the prep16 arations for the assumption of official duties as 

17 President or Vice President necessary services 

18 and facilities, including’’; and 

19 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

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

21 a committee of either House of Congress, 

22 a joint committee of the Congress, or an 

23 individual Member of Congress,’’ after 

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

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

26 employee in a position in the legislative 


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1 branch, with the consent of the supervising 

2 Member of Congress’’ after ‘‘with the con3 sent of the head of the agency’’; 

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

5 following: 

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

7 provision of services and facilities under this section— 

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

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

10 after the inauguration of the President-elect as 

11 President and the inauguration of the Vice-Presi12 dent-elect as Vice President incurred by the Presi13 dent or Vice President, during the period— 

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

15 of the general elections held to determine the 

16 electors of the President and Vice President 

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

18 Code; and 

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

20 after the date of such inauguration; and 

21 ‘‘(2) without regard to whether the President22 elect, Vice-President-elect, President, or Vice Presi23 dent submits to the Administrator a request for pay24 ment regarding services or facilities before the end 

25 of such period.’’; 


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

2 ‘‘computers’’ and inserting ‘‘information tech3 nology’’; and 

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

5 ‘‘(i) MEMORANDUMS OF UNDERSTANDING.— 

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

7 1 of a year during which a Presidential election oc8 curs, the Administrator shall, to the maximum ex9 tent practicable, enter into a memorandum of under10 standing with each eligible candidate, which shall in11 clude, at a minimum, the conditions for the adminis12 trative support services and facilities described in 

13 subsection (a). 

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

15 extent practicable, a memorandum of understanding 

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

17 memorandums of understanding relating to previous 

18 Presidential transitions. 

19 ‘‘(3) TRANSITION REPRESENTATIVE.— 

20 ‘‘(A) DESIGNATION OF REPRESENTATIVE

21 FOR INQUIRIES.—Each memorandum of under22 standing entered into under this subsection 

23 shall designate a representative of the eligible 

24 candidate to whom the Administrator shall di25 rect any inquiries or legal instruments regardVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:43 Aug 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S394.RFH S394

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1 ing the records of the eligible candidate that are 

2 in the custody of the Administrator. 

3 ‘‘(B) CHANGE IN TRANSITION REPRESENT4 ATIVE.—The designation of a new individual as 

5 the transition representative of an eligible can6 didate shall not require the execution of a new 

7 memorandum of understanding under this sub8 section. 

9 ‘‘(C) TERMINATION OF DESIGNATION.— 

10 The designation of a transition representative 

11 under a memorandum of understanding shall 

12 terminate— 

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

14 the year during which the inauguration of 

15 the President-elect as President and the 

16 inauguration of the Vice-President-elect as 

17 Vice President occurs; or 

18 ‘‘(ii) before the date described in 

19 clause (i), upon request of the President20 elect or the Vice-President-elect or, after 

21 such inauguration, upon request of the 

22 President or the Vice President. 

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

24 memorandum of understanding entered into under 

25 this subsection shall be agreed to in writing. 


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

2 Each party to a memorandum of understanding en3 tered into under this subsection shall provide written 

4 notice, except to the extent prohibited under another 

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

6 any action that deviates from the terms and condi7 tions agreed to in the memorandum of under8 standing. 

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

10 ‘eligible candidate’ has the meaning given that term 

11 in subsection (h)(4).’’. 

12 (b) AGENCY TRANSITIONS.—Section 4 of the Presi13 dential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102 note) is 

14 amended— 

15 (1) in subsection (a)— 

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

17 the end; 

18 (B) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 

19 paragraph (5); and 

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

21 following: 

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

23 ‘‘(A) means information from the Federal 

24 Government that a member of a transition team 

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1 ber that such member knows or reasonably 

2 should know has not been made available to the 

3 general public; and 

4 ‘‘(B) includes information that a member 

5 of the transition team knows or reasonably 

6 should know— 

7 ‘‘(i) is exempt from disclosure under 

8 section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 

9 or otherwise protected from disclosure by 

10 law; and 

11 ‘‘(ii) is not authorized by the appro12 priate government agency or officials to be 

13 released to the public; and’’; 

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

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

16 after ‘‘senior representative’’; 

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

18 the following: 

19 ‘‘(2) ACTING OFFICERS.—Not later than Sep20 tember 15 of a year during which a Presidential 

21 election occurs, and in accordance with subchapter 

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

23 head of each agency shall ensure that a succession 

24 plan is in place for each senior noncareer position in 

25 the agency.’’; and 


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1 (4) in subsection (g)— 

2 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘Novem3 ber 1’’ and inserting ‘‘October 1’’; and 

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

5 ‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 

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

7 understanding under paragraph (1) shall in8 clude an agreement that the eligible candidate 

9 will implement and enforce an ethics plan to 

10 guide the conduct of the transition beginning on 

11 the date on which the eligible candidate be12 comes the President-elect. 

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

14 include, at a minimum— 

15 ‘‘(i) a description of the ethics re16 quirements that will apply to all members 

17 of the transition team, including any spe18 cific requirement for transition team mem19 bers who will have access to nonpublic or 

20 classified information; 

21 ‘‘(ii) a description of how the transi22 tion team will— 

23 ‘‘(I) address the role on the tran24 sition team of— 


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1 ‘‘(aa) lobbyists registered 

2 under the Lobbying Disclosure 

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

4 seq.) and individuals who were 

5 former lobbyists registered under 

6 that Act; and 

7 ‘‘(bb) persons registered 

8 under the Foreign Agents Reg9 istration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 

10 611 et seq.), foreign nationals, 

11 and other foreign agents; 

12 ‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team 

13 member with conflicts of interest simi14 lar to those applicable to Federal em15 ployees under section 2635.402(a) 

16 and section 2635.502(a) of title 5, 

17 Code of Federal Regulations, related 

18 to current or former employment, af19 filiations, clients, or investments, from 

20 working on particular matters involv21 ing specific parties that affect the in22 terests of such member; and 

23 ‘‘(III) address how the covered 

24 eligible candidate will address his or 

25 her own conflicts of interest during a 


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1 Presidential term if the covered eligi2 ble candidate becomes the President3 elect; 

4 ‘‘(iii) a Code of Ethical Conduct, 

5 which each member of the transition team 

6 will sign and be subject to, that reflects 

7 the content of the ethics plans under this 

8 paragraph and at a minimum requires 

9 transition team members to— 

10 ‘‘(I) seek authorization from 

11 transition team leaders or their des12 ignees before seeking, on behalf of the 

13 transition, access to any nonpublic in14 formation; 

15 ‘‘(II) keep confidential any non16 public information provided in the 

17 course of the duties of the member 

18 with the transition and exclusively use 

19 such information for the purposes of 

20 the transition; and 

21 ‘‘(III) not use any nonpublic in22 formation provided in the course of 

23 transition duties, in any manner, for 

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1 ber or any other party at any time 

2 during or after the transition; and 

3 ‘‘(iv) a description of how the transi4 tion team will enforce the Code of Ethical 

5 Conduct, including the names of the mem6 bers of the transition team responsible for 

7 enforcement, oversight, and compliance. 

8 ‘‘(C) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.—The transi9 tion team shall make the ethics plan described 

10 in this paragraph publicly available on the 

11 internet website of the General Services Admin12 istration the earlier of— 

13 ‘‘(i) the day on which the memo14 randum of understanding is completed; or 

15 ‘‘(ii) October 1.’’. 

Passed the Senate August 1, 2019. 

Attest: JULIE E. ADAMS, 

Secretary. 


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