II 

Calendar No. 44 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 394 

[Report No. 116–13] 

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 

MARCH 25, 2019 

Reported by Mr. JOHNSON, with amendments 

[Omit the part struck through and insert the part printed in italic] 

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’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ENHANCEMENTS. 

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

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

4 (1) in subsection (a)— 

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

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

7 through ‘‘including’’ and inserting ‘‘upon re8 quest, to each President-elect, each Vice-Presi9 dent-elect, and, for up to 60 days after the date 

10 of the inauguration of the President-elect and 

11 Vice-President-elect, each President and Vice 

12 President, for use in connection with the prep13 arations for the assumption of official duties as 

14 President or Vice President necessary services 

15 and facilities, including’’; and 

16 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

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

18 a committee of either House of Congress, 

19 a joint committee of the Congress, or an 

20 individual Member of Congress,’’ after 

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

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

23 employee in a position in the legislative 

24 branch, with the consent of the supervising 

25 Member of Congress’’ after ‘‘with the con26 sent of the head of the agency’’; 


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

2 following: 

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

4 provision of services and facilities under this section— 

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

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

7 after the inauguration of the President-elect as 

8 President and the inauguration of the Vice-Presi9 dent-elect as Vice President incurred by the Presi10 dent or Vice President, during the period— 

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

12 of the general elections held to determine the 

13 electors of the President and Vice President 

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

15 Code; and 

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

17 after the date of such inauguration; and 

18 ‘‘(2) without regard to whether the President19 elect, Vice-President-elect, President, or Vice Presi20 dent submits to the Administrator a request for pay21 ment regarding services or facilities before the end 

22 of such period.’’; 

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

24 ‘‘computers’’ and inserting ‘‘information tech25 nology’’; and 


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

2 ‘‘(i) MEMORANDUMS OF UNDERSTANDING.— 

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

4 1 of a year during which a Presidential election oc5 curs, the Administrator shall, to the maximum ex6 tent practicable, enter into a memorandum of under7 standing with each eligible candidate, which shall in8 clude, at a minimum, the conditions for the adminis9 trative support services and facilities described in 

10 subsection (a). 

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

12 extent practicable, a memorandum of understanding 

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

14 memorandums of understanding relating to previous 

15 Presidential transitions. 

16 ‘‘(3) TRANSITION REPRESENTATIVE.— 

17 ‘‘(A) DESIGNATION OF REPRESENTATIVE

18 FOR INQUIRIES.—Each memorandum of under19 standing entered into under this subsection 

20 shall designate a representative of the eligible 

21 candidate to whom the Administrator shall di22 rect any inquiries or legal instruments regard23 ing the records of the eligible candidate that are 

24 in the custody of the Administrator. 


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1 ‘‘(B) CHANGE IN TRANSITION REPRESENT2 ATIVE.—The designation of a new individual as 

3 the transition representative of an eligible can4 didate shall not require the execution of a new 

5 memorandum of understanding under this sub6 section. 

7 ‘‘(C) TERMINATION OF DESIGNATION.— 

8 The designation of a transition representative 

9 under a memorandum of understanding shall 

10 terminate— 

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

12 the year during which the inauguration of 

13 the President-elect as President and the 

14 inauguration of the Vice-President-elect as 

15 Vice President occurs; or 

16 ‘‘(ii) before the date described in 

17 clause (i), upon request of the President18 elect or the Vice-President-elect or, after 

19 such inauguration, upon request of the 

20 President or the Vice President. 

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

22 memorandum of understanding entered into under 

23 this subsection shall be agreed to in writing. 

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

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1 tered into under this subsection shall provide written 

2 notice, except to the extent prohibited under another 

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

4 any action that deviates from the terms and condi5 tions agreed to in the memorandum of under6 standing. 

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

8 ‘eligible candidate’ has the meaning given that term 

9 in subsection (h)(4).’’. 

10 (b) AGENCY TRANSITIONS.—Section 4 of the Presi11 dential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102 note) is 

12 amended— 

13 (1) in subsection (a)— 

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

15 the end; 

16 (B) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 

17 paragraph (5); and 

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

19 following: 

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

21 ‘‘(A) means information from the Federal 

22 Government that a member of a transition team 

23 obtains as part of the employment of the mem24 ber that such member knows or reasonably 


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1 should know has not been made available to the 

2 general public; and 

3 ‘‘(B) includes information that a member 

4 of the transition team knows or reasonably 

5 should know— 

6 ‘‘(i) is exempt from disclosure under 

7 section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 

8 or otherwise protected from disclosure by 

9 law; and 

10 ‘‘(ii) is not authorized by the appro11 priate government agency or officials to be 

12 released to the public; and’’; 

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

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

15 after ‘‘senior representative’’; 

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

17 the following: 

18 ‘‘(2) ACTING OFFICERS.—Not later than Sep19 tember 15 of a year during which a Presidential 

20 election occurs, and in accordance with subchapter 

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

22 head of each agency shall ensure that a succession 

23 plan is in place for each senior noncareer position in 

24 the agency.’’; and 

25 (4) in subsection (g)— 


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1 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘Novem2 ber 1’’ and inserting ‘‘October 1’’; and 

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

4 ‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 

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

6 understanding under paragraph (1) shall in7 clude an agreement that the eligible candidate 

8 will implement and enforce an ethics plan to 

9 guide the conduct of the transition beginning on 

10 the date on which the eligible candidate be11 comes the President-elect. 

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

13 include, at a minimum— 

14 ‘‘(i) a description of the ethics re15 quirements that will apply to all members 

16 of the transition team, including any spe17 cific requirement for transition team mem18 bers who will have access to nonpublic or 

19 classified information; 

20 ‘‘(ii) a description of how the transi21 tion team will— 

22 ‘‘(I) address the role on the tran23 sition team of— 

24 ‘‘(aa) lobbyists registered 

25 under the Lobbying Disclosure 


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

2 seq.) and individuals who were 

3 former lobbyists registered under 

4 that Act; and 

5 ‘‘(bb) persons registered 

6 under the Foreign Agents Reg7 istration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 

8 611 et seq.), foreign nationals, 

9 and other foreign agents; 

10 ‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team 

11 member with conflicts of interest simi12 lar to those applicable to Federal em13 ployees under section 2635.402(a) 

14 and section 2635.502(a) of title 5, 

15 Code of Federal Regulations, related 

16 to current or former employment, af17 filiations, clients, or investments, from 

18 working on particular matters involv19 ing specific parties that affect the in20 terests of such member; and 

21 ‘‘(III) address how the covered 

22 eligible candidate will address his or 

23 her own conflicts of interest during a 

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1 ble candidate becomes the President2 elect; 

3 ‘‘(iii) a Code of Ethical Conduct, 

4 which each member of the transition team 

5 will sign and be subject to, that reflects 

6 the content of the ethics plans under this 

7 paragraph and at a minimum requires 

8 transition team members to— 

9 ‘‘(I) seek authorization from 

10 transition team leaders or their des11 ignees before seeking, on behalf of the 

12 transition, access to any nonpublic in13 formation; 

14 ‘‘(II) keep confidential any non15 public information provided in the 

16 course of the duties of the member 

17 with the transition and exclusively use 

18 such information for the purposes of 

19 the transition; and 

20 ‘‘(III) not use any nonpublic in21 formation provided in the course of 

22 transition duties, in any manner, for 

23 personal or private gain for the mem24 ber or any other party at any time 

25 during or after the transition; and 


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1 ‘‘(iv) a description of how the transi2 tion team will enforce the Code of Ethical 

3 Conduct, including the names of the mem4 bers of the transition team responsible for 

5 enforcement, oversight, and compliance. 

6 ‘‘(C) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.—The transi7 tion team shall make the ethics plan described 

8 in this paragraph publicly available on the 

9 Internet internet website of the General Serv10 ices Administration the earlier of— 

11 ‘‘(i) the day on which the memo12 randum of understanding is completed; or 

13 ‘‘(ii) October 1.’’. 


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Calendar No. 44 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 394 

[Report No. 116–13] 

A BILL 

To amend the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 

power during Presidential transitions. to improve the orderly transfer of the executive 

MARCH 25, 2019 

Reported with amendments 


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