I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4826 
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 
JANUARY 18, 2018 
Mr. CUMMINGS (for himself, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. 
NORTON, Mr. CLAY, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. COOPER, Mr. CONNOLLY, Ms. 
KELLY of Illinois, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. 
KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. WELCH, Mr. DESAULNIER, and Mr. 
GOMEZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Oversight and Government 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. 
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 Eth-
ics Improvement Act’’. 
SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ETHICS PROGRAMS. 
The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 
102 note) is amended— 
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(1) in section 3(f), by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new paragraph: 
‘‘(3) The President-elect shall submit to the Com-
mittee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House 
of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Secu-
rity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a report with 
a list of— 
‘‘(A) any individual for whom an application for 
a security clearance was submitted, not later than 
10 days after the date on which the application was 
submitted; and 
‘‘(B) any individual provided a security clear-
ance, not later than 10 days after the date on which 
the security clearance was provided.’’; 
(2) in section 4— 
(A) in subsection (a)— 
(i) in paragraph (3), by striking 
‘‘and’’ at the end; 
(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-
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tains as part of the employment of such mem-
ber that the member knows or reasonably 
should know has not been made available to the 
general public; and 
‘‘(B) includes information 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 fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each memorandum of 
understanding under paragraph (1) shall in-
clude an agreement that the eligible candidate 
will implement and enforce an ethics plan to 
guide the conduct of the transition beginning on 
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the date on which the eligible candidate be-
comes the President-elect. 
‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—The ethics plan shall 
include, at a minimum— 
‘‘(i) a description of the ethics re-
quirements that will apply to all transition 
team members, including specific require-
ments for transition team members who 
will have access to nonpublic or classified 
information; 
‘‘(ii) a description of how the transi-
tion team will— 
‘‘(I) address the role on the tran-
sition team of— 
‘‘(aa) 
registered 
lobbyists 
under the Lobbying Disclosure 
Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et 
seq.) and individuals who were 
formerly 
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-
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tionals, and other foreign agents; 
and 
‘‘(cc) transition team mem-
bers with sources of income or 
clients that are not disclosed to 
the public; 
‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team 
member with conflicts of interest, in-
cluding conflicts described in section 
2635.402(a) and section 2635.502(a) 
of title 5, Code of Federal Regula-
tions, related to current or former em-
ployment, affiliations, clients, or in-
vestments, from working on particular 
matters involving specific parties that 
affect the interests of such member; 
and 
‘‘(III) address how the covered 
eligible candidate will address their 
own conflicts of interest during a 
Presidential term if the covered eligi-
ble candidate becomes the President- 
elect; 
‘‘(iii) a Code of Ethical Conduct, to 
which each transition team member will 
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sign and be subject to, that reflects the 
content of the ethics plans under this para-
graph and at a minimum requires each 
transition team member to— 
‘‘(I) 
seek 
authorization 
from 
transition team leaders or their des-
ignees before seeking, on behalf of the 
transition, access to any nonpublic in-
formation; 
‘‘(II) keep confidential any non-
public information provided in the 
course of the duties of the member 
with the transition and exclusively use 
such information for the purposes of 
the transition; and 
‘‘(III) not use any nonpublic in-
formation provided in the course of 
transition duties, in any manner, for 
personal or private gain for the mem-
ber or any other party at any time 
during or after the transition; and 
‘‘(iv) a description of how the transi-
tion team will enforce the Code of Ethical 
Conduct, including the names of the tran-
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