II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2321 

To amend the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 to require the development 

of ethics plans for certain transition teams, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 18, 2018 

Ms. WARREN (for herself, Mr. CARPER, Mr. UDALL, Ms. HASSAN, Mr. MARKEY, Ms. HIRONO, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, and Mrs. FEINSTEIN) 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 require 

the development of ethics plans for certain transition 

teams, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Transition Team Eth5 ics Improvement Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ETHICS PROGRAMS. 

7 The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 

8 102 note) is amended— 


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1 (1) in section 3(f) by adding at the end the fol2 lowing: 

3 ‘‘(3) The President-elect shall submit to the Com4 mittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

5 of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Gov6 ernment Reform of the House of Representatives a list 

7 of— 

8 ‘‘(A) any individual for whom an application for 

9 a security clearance was submitted, not later than 

10 10 days after the date on which the application was 

11 submitted; and 

12 ‘‘(B) any individual provided a security clear13 ance, not later than 10 days after the date on which 

14 the security clearance was provided.’’; 

15 (2) in section 4— 

16 (A) in subsection (a)— 

17 (i) in paragraph (3), by striking 

18 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

19 (ii) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 

20 paragraph (5); and 

21 (iii) by inserting after paragraph (3) 

22 the following: 

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

24 ‘‘(A) means information from the Federal 

25 Government that a transition member obtains 


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1 as part of the employment of the member that 

2 such member knows or reasonably should know 

3 has not been made available to the general pub4 lic; and 

5 ‘‘(B) includes information that a member 

6 of the transition team knows or reasonably 

7 should know— 

8 ‘‘(i) is exempt from disclosure under 

9 section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 

10 or otherwise protected from disclosure by 

11 law; and 

12 ‘‘(ii) is not authorized by the appro13 priate government agency or official to be 

14 released to the public; and’’; and 

15 (B) in subsection (g)— 

16 (i) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘No17 vember’’ and inserting ‘‘October’’; and 

18 (ii) by adding at the end the fol19 lowing: 

20 ‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 

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

22 understanding under paragraph (1) shall in23 clude an agreement that the eligible candidate 

24 will implement and enforce an ethics plan to 

25 guide the conduct of the transition beginning on 


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1 the date on which the eligible candidate be2 comes the President-elect. 

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

4 include, at a minimum— 

5 ‘‘(i) a description of the ethics re6 quirements that will apply to all members 

7 of the transition team, including any spe8 cific requirement for transition team mem9 bers who will have access to nonpublic or 

10 classified information; 

11 ‘‘(ii) a description of how the transi12 tion team will— 

13 ‘‘(I) address the role on the tran14 sition team of— 

15 ‘‘(aa) lobbyists registered 

16 under the Lobbying Disclosure 

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

18 seq.) and individuals who were 

19 former lobbyists registered under 

20 that Act; 

21 ‘‘(bb) persons registered 

22 under the Foreign Agents Reg23 istration Act (22 U.S.C. 611 et 

24 seq.), foreign nationals, and other 

25 foreign agents; and 


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1 ‘‘(cc) transition team mem2 bers with sources of income or 

3 clients that are not disclosed to 

4 the public; 

5 ‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team 

6 member with conflicts of interest, in7 cluding conflicts, as described in sec8 tion 2635.402(a) and section 

9 2635.502(a) of title 5, Code of Fed10 eral Regulations, related to current or 

11 former employment, affiliations, cli12 ents, or investments, from working on 

13 particular matters involving specific 

14 parties that affect the interests of 

15 such member; and 

16 ‘‘(III) address how the covered 

17 eligible candidate will address their 

18 own conflicts of interest during a 

19 Presidential term if the covered eligi20 ble candidate becomes the President21 elect; 

22 ‘‘(iii) a Code of Ethical Conduct, to 

23 which each member of the transition team 

24 will sign and be subject to, that reflects 

25 the content of the ethics plans under this 


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1 paragraph and at a minimum requires 

2 transition team members to— 

3 ‘‘(I) seek authorization from 

4 transition team leaders or their des5 ignees before seeking, on behalf of the 

6 transition, access to any nonpublic in7 formation; 

8 ‘‘(II) keep confidential any non9 public information provided in the 

10 course of the duties of the member 

11 with the transition and exclusively use 

12 such information for the purposes of 

13 the transition; and 

14 ‘‘(III) not use any nonpublic in15 formation provided in the course of 

16 transition duties, in any manner, for 

17 personal or private gain for the mem18 ber or any other party at any time 

19 during or after the transition; and 

20 ‘‘(iv) a description of how the transi21 tion team will enforce the Code of Ethical 

22 Conduct, including the names of the mem23 bers of the transition team responsible for 

24 enforcement, oversight, and compliance. 


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1 ‘‘(C) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.—The transi2 tion team shall make the ethics plan described 

3 in this paragraph publicly available on the 

4 Internet website of the General Services Admin5 istration the earlier of— 

6 ‘‘(i) the day on which the memo7 randum of understanding is completed; or 

8 ‘‘(ii) October 1.’’; and 

9 (3) in section 6(b)— 

10 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

11 (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 

12 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

13 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 

14 the period at the end and inserting a semi15 colon; and 

16 (iii) by adding at the end the fol17 lowing: 

18 ‘‘(C) a list of all positions each transition 

19 team member has held outside the Federal Gov20 ernment for the previous 12-month period, in21 cluding paid, unpaid and uncompensated posi22 tions; 

23 ‘‘(D) sources of compensation of each tran24 sition team member exceeding $5,000 a year for 

25 the previous 12-month period; 


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1 ‘‘(E) a description of the role of the mem2 ber on the transition team, including a list of 

3 any policy issues that the member expects to 

4 work on, and a list of agencies the member ex5 pects to interact with, while serving on the 

6 transition team; 

7 ‘‘(F) a list of any issues from which each 

8 transition team member will be recused while 

9 serving as a member of the transition team pur10 suant to the transition team ethics plan out11 lined in section 4(g)(3); and 

12 ‘‘(G) an affirmation that the transition 

13 team member does not have a financial conflict 

14 of interest that precludes the member from 

15 working on the matters described in subpara16 graph (E).’’; 

17 (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘not 

18 later than 2 business days’’ after ‘‘public’’; and 

19 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

20 ‘‘(3) The head of a Federal department or 

21 agency, or their designee, shall not permit access to 

22 the agency or employees of the agency that would 

23 not be provided to a member of the public for any 


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1 transition team member who does not make the dis2 closures listed under paragraph (1).’’. 

Æ 


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