IB 

Union Calendar No. 306 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 964 

[Report No. 116–382] 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 5, 2019 

Mr. CUMMINGS (for himself, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. 

NORTON, Mr. CLAY, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. COOPER, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. 

ROUDA, Ms. HILL of California, Mr. SARBANES, Mr. WELCH, Ms. 

SPEIER, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. GOMEZ, 

Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. PRESSLEY, and Mr. RASKIN) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform 

JANUARY 27, 2020 

Reported from the Committee on Oversight and Reform, committed to the 

Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered 

to be printed 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on February 5, 2019] 


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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. 


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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 Ethics 

5 Improvement Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ETHICS PROGRAMS. 

7 The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102 

8 note) is amended— 

9 (1) in section 3(f), by adding at the end the fol10 lowing: 

11 ‘‘(3) Not later than 10 days after submitting an appli12 cation for a security clearance for any individual, and not 

13 later than 10 days after any such individual is granted 

14 a security clearance (including an interim clearance), each 

15 eligible candidate (as that term is described in subsection 

16 (h)(4)(A)) or the President-elect (as the case may be) shall 

17 submit a report containing the name of such individual to 

18 the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the House of 

19 Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 

20 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate.’’; 

21 (2) in section 4— 

22 (A) in subsection (a)— 

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

24 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 


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1 (ii) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 

2 paragraph (5); and 

3 (iii) by inserting after paragraph (3) 

4 the following: 

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

6 ‘‘(A) means information from the Federal 

7 Government that a transition team member ob8 tains as part of the employment of such member 

9 that the member knows or reasonably should 

10 know has not been made available to the general 

11 public; and 

12 ‘‘(B) includes information that has not been 

13 released to the public that a transition team 

14 member knows or reasonably should know— 

15 ‘‘(i) is exempt from disclosure under 

16 section 552 of title 5, United States Code, or 

17 otherwise protected from disclosure by law; 

18 and 

19 ‘‘(ii) is not authorized by the appro20 priate agency or official to be released to the 

21 public; and’’; and 

22 (B) in subsection (g)— 

23 (i) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘No24 vember’’ and inserting ‘‘October’’; and 

25 (ii) by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 

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

3 understanding under paragraph (1) shall include 

4 an agreement that the eligible candidate will im5 plement and enforce an ethics plan to guide the 

6 conduct of the transition beginning on the date 

7 on which the eligible candidate becomes the 

8 President-elect. 

9 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—The ethics plan shall in10 clude, at a minimum— 

11 ‘‘(i) a description of the ethics require12 ments that will apply to all transition team 

13 members, including specific requirements 

14 for transition team members who will have 

15 access to nonpublic or classified informa16 tion; 

17 ‘‘(ii) a description of how the transi18 tion team will— 

19 ‘‘(I) address the role on the transi20 tion team of— 

21 ‘‘(aa) registered lobbyists 

22 under the Lobbying Disclosure Act 

23 of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) 

24 and individuals who were forVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964

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1 merly registered lobbyists under 

2 that Act; 

3 ‘‘(bb) persons registered 

4 under the Foreign Agents Reg5 istration Act, as amended (22 

6 U.S.C. 611 et seq.), foreign na7 tionals, and other foreign agents; 

8 and 

9 ‘‘(cc) transition team mem10 bers with sources of income or cli11 ents that are not disclosed to the 

12 public; 

13 ‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team 

14 member with personal financial con15 flicts of interest as described in section 

16 208 of title 18, United States Code, 

17 from working on particular matters 

18 involving specific parties that affect the 

19 interests of such member; and 

20 ‘‘(III) address how the covered eli21 gible candidate will address their own 

22 personal financial conflicts of interest 

23 during a Presidential term if the cov24 ered eligible candidate becomes the 

25 President-elect; 


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

2 which each transition team member will 

3 sign and be subject to, that reflects the con4 tent of the ethics plans under this para5 graph and at a minimum requires each 

6 transition team member to— 

7 ‘‘(I) seek authorization from tran8 sition team leaders or their designees 

9 before seeking, on behalf of the transi10 tion, access to any nonpublic informa11 tion; 

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

14 course of the duties of the member with 

15 the transition and exclusively use such 

16 information for the purposes of the 

17 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 transi2 tion team members responsible for enforce3 ment, oversight, and compliance. 

4 ‘‘(C) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.—The transition 

5 team shall make the ethics plan described in this 

6 paragraph publicly available on the website of 

7 the General Services Administration the earlier 

8 of— 

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

11 ‘‘(ii) October 1.’’; and 

12 (3) in section 6(b)— 

13 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

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

15 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

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

17 the period at the end and inserting a semi18 colon; and 

19 (iii) by adding at the end the fol20 lowing: 

21 ‘‘(C) a list of all positions each transition team 

22 member has held outside the Federal Government for 

23 the previous 12-month period, including paid and un24 paid positions; 


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1 ‘‘(D) sources of compensation for each transition 

2 team member exceeding $5,000 a year for the previous 

3 12-month period; 

4 ‘‘(E) a description of the role of each transition 

5 team member, including a list of any policy issues 

6 that the member expects to work on, and a list of 

7 agencies the member expects to interact with, while 

8 serving on the transition team; 

9 ‘‘(F) a list of any issues from which each transi10 tion team member will be recused while serving as a 

11 member of the transition team pursuant to the transi12 tion team ethics plan outlined in section 4(g)(3); and 

13 ‘‘(G) an affirmation that no transition team 

14 member has a financial conflict of interest that pre15 cludes the member from working on the matters de16 scribed in subparagraph (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 agency, or 

21 their designee, shall not permit access to the Federal depart22 ment or agency, or employees of such department or agency, 

23 that would not be provided to a member of the public for 

24 any transition team member who does not make the disclo25 sures listed under paragraph (1).’’. 


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Union Calendar No. 306 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 964 

[Report No. 116–382] 

A BILL 

To amend the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 

certain transition teams, and for other purposes. to require the development of ethics plans for 

JANUARY 27, 2020 

Reported from the Committee on Oversight and Reform, 

the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed committed to the Committee of the Whole House on 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS