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 Re-
form 
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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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Transition Team Ethics 
Improvement Act’’. 
SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ETHICS PROGRAMS. 
The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102 
note) is amended— 
(1) in section 3(f), by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(3) Not later than 10 days after submitting an appli-
cation for a security clearance for any individual, and not 
later than 10 days after any such individual is granted 
a security clearance (including an interim clearance), each 
eligible candidate (as that term is described in subsection 
(h)(4)(A)) or the President-elect (as the case may be) shall 
submit a report containing the name of such individual to 
the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the House of 
Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate.’’; 
(2) in section 4— 
(A) in subsection (a)— 
(i) in paragraph (3), by striking 
‘‘and’’ at the end; 
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(ii) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 
paragraph (5); and 
(iii) by inserting after paragraph (3) 
the following: 
‘‘(4) the term ‘nonpublic information’— 
‘‘(A) means information from the Federal 
Government that a transition team member ob-
tains as part of the employment of such member 
that the member knows or reasonably should 
know has not been made available to the general 
public; and 
‘‘(B) includes information that has not been 
released to the public that a transition team 
member knows or reasonably should know— 
‘‘(i) is exempt from disclosure under 
section 552 of title 5, United States Code, or 
otherwise protected from disclosure by law; 
and 
‘‘(ii) is not authorized by the appro-
priate agency or official to be released to the 
public; and’’; and 
(B) in subsection (g)— 
(i) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘No-
vember’’ and inserting ‘‘October’’; and 
(ii) by adding at the end the following: 
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‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each memorandum of 
understanding under paragraph (1) shall include 
an agreement that the eligible candidate will im-
plement and enforce an ethics plan to guide the 
conduct of the transition beginning on the date 
on which the eligible candidate becomes the 
President-elect. 
‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—The ethics plan shall in-
clude, at a minimum— 
‘‘(i) a description of the ethics require-
ments that will apply to all transition team 
members, including specific requirements 
for transition team members who will have 
access to nonpublic or classified informa-
tion; 
‘‘(ii) a description of how the transi-
tion team will— 
‘‘(I) address the role on the transi-
tion team of— 
‘‘(aa) 
registered 
lobbyists 
under the Lobbying Disclosure Act 
of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) 
and individuals who were for-
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merly registered lobbyists under 
that Act; 
‘‘(bb) 
persons 
registered 
under the Foreign Agents Reg-
istration Act, as amended (22 
U.S.C. 611 et seq.), foreign na-
tionals, and other foreign agents; 
and 
‘‘(cc) transition team mem-
bers with sources of income or cli-
ents that are not disclosed to the 
public; 
‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team 
member with personal financial con-
flicts of interest as described in section 
208 of title 18, United States Code, 
from working on particular matters 
involving specific parties that affect the 
interests of such member; and 
‘‘(III) address how the covered eli-
gible candidate will address their own 
personal financial conflicts of interest 
during a Presidential term if the cov-
ered eligible candidate becomes the 
President-elect; 
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