I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 964 

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 

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’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ETHICS PROGRAMS. 

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

3 102 note) is amended— 

4 (1) in section 3(f), by adding at the end the fol5 lowing new paragraph: 

6 ‘‘(3) The President-elect shall submit to the Com7 mittee on Oversight and Reform of the House of Rep8 resentatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 

9 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a report with a 

10 list of— 

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

12 a security clearance was submitted, not later than 

13 10 days after the date on which the application was 

14 submitted; and 

15 ‘‘(B) any individual provided a security clear16 ance, not later than 10 days after the date on which 

17 the security clearance was provided.’’; 

18 (2) in section 4— 

19 (A) in subsection (a)— 

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

21 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

22 (ii) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 

23 paragraph (5); and 

24 (iii) by inserting after paragraph (3) 

25 the following: 

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


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1 ‘‘(A) means information from the Federal 

2 Government that a transition team member ob3 tains as part of the employment of such mem4 ber that the member knows or reasonably 

5 should know has not been made available to the 

6 general public; and 

7 ‘‘(B) includes information that has not 

8 been released to the public that a transition 

9 team member knows or reasonably should 

10 know— 

11 ‘‘(i) is exempt from disclosure under 

12 section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 

13 or otherwise protected from disclosure by 

14 law; and 

15 ‘‘(ii) is not authorized by the appro16 priate agency or official to be released to 

17 the public; and’’; and 

18 (B) in subsection (g)— 

19 (i) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘No20 vember’’ and inserting ‘‘October’’; and 

21 (ii) by adding at the end the fol22 lowing: 

23 ‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 

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

25 understanding under paragraph (1) shall inVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:22 Feb 15, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H964.IH H964

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1 clude an agreement that the eligible candidate 

2 will implement and enforce an ethics plan to 

3 guide the conduct of the transition beginning on 

4 the date on which the eligible candidate be5 comes the President-elect. 

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

7 include, at a minimum— 

8 ‘‘(i) a description of the ethics re9 quirements that will apply to all transition 

10 team members, including specific require11 ments for transition team members who 

12 will have access to nonpublic or classified 

13 information; 

14 ‘‘(ii) a description of how the transi15 tion team will— 

16 ‘‘(I) address the role on the tran17 sition team of— 

18 ‘‘(aa) registered lobbyists 

19 under the Lobbying Disclosure 

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

21 seq.) and individuals who were 

22 formerly registered lobbyists 

23 under that Act; 

24 ‘‘(bb) persons registered 

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1 istration Act, as amended (22 

2 U.S.C. 611 et seq.), foreign na3 tionals, and other foreign agents; 

4 and 

5 ‘‘(cc) transition team mem6 bers with sources of income or 

7 clients that are not disclosed to 

8 the public; 

9 ‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team 

10 member with personal financial con11 flicts of interest as described in sec12 tion 208 of title 18, United States 

13 Code, from working on particular 

14 matters involving specific parties that 

15 affect the interests of such member; 

16 and 

17 ‘‘(III) address how the covered 

18 eligible candidate will address their 

19 own personal financial conflicts of in20 terest during a Presidential term if 

21 the covered eligible candidate becomes 

22 the President-elect; 

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

24 which each transition team member will 

25 sign and be subject to, that reflects the 


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1 content of the ethics plans under this para2 graph and at a minimum requires each 

3 transition team member to— 

4 ‘‘(I) seek authorization from 

5 transition team leaders or their des6 ignees before seeking, on behalf of the 

7 transition, access to any nonpublic in8 formation; 

9 ‘‘(II) keep confidential any non10 public information provided in the 

11 course of the duties of the member 

12 with the transition and exclusively use 

13 such information for the purposes of 

14 the transition; and 

15 ‘‘(III) not use any nonpublic in16 formation provided in the course of 

17 transition duties, in any manner, for 

18 personal or private gain for the mem19 ber or any other party at any time 

20 during or after the transition; and 

21 ‘‘(iv) a description of how the transi22 tion team will enforce the Code of Ethical 

23 Conduct, including the names of the tran24 sition team members responsible for en25 forcement, 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 team 

19 member has held outside the Federal Government 

20 for the previous 12-month period, including paid and 

21 unpaid positions; 

22 ‘‘(D) sources of compensation for each transi23 tion team member exceeding $5,000 a year for the 

24 previous 12-month period; 


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

2 team member, including a list of any policy issues 

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

4 agencies the member expects to interact with, while 

5 serving on the transition team; 

6 ‘‘(F) a list of any issues from which each tran7 sition team member will be recused while serving as 

8 a member of the transition team pursuant to the 

9 transition team ethics plan outlined in section 

10 4(g)(3); and 

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

12 member has a financial conflict of interest that pre13 cludes the member from working on the matters de14 scribed in subparagraph (E).’’; 

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

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

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

18 ‘‘(3) The head of a Federal department or agency, 

19 or their designee, shall not permit access to the Federal 

20 department or agency, or employees of such department 

21 or agency, that would not be provided to a member of the 

22 public for any transition team member who does not make 

23 the disclosures listed under paragraph (1).’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. SEVERABILITY. 

2 If any provision of this Act or amendment made by 

3 this Act, or the application of a provision or amendment 

4 to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitu5 tional, the remainder of this Act and amendments made 

6 by this Act, and the application of the provisions and 

7 amendment to any person or circumstance, shall not be 

8 affected by the holding. 

Æ 


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