Title: Transition Team Ethics Improvement Act
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:
Transition Team Ethics Improvement Act
This bill expands ethics and disclosure requirements for presidential transition teams. Among other changes, the bill requires presidential candidates to develop and publicly release ethics plans for their transition teams, requires team members to sign an ethical code of conduct, requires teams to report to Congress regarding security clearances, and expands disclosure requirements for team members who are assigned to federal departments or agencies.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4826 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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 Committee 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 Representatives 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 following new 
        paragraph:
    ``(3) The President-elect shall submit to the Committee on 
Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives and the 
Committee on Homeland Security 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 clearance, 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 obtains 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 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 appropriate 
                        agency or official to be released to the 
                        public; and''; and
                    (B) in subsection (g)--
                            (i) in paragraph (1), by striking 
                        ``November'' and inserting ``October''; and
                            (ii) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) Ethics plan.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Each memorandum of understanding 
                under paragraph (1) shall include an agreement that the 
                eligible candidate will implement 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 include, at 
                a minimum--
                            ``(i) a description of the ethics 
                        requirements that will apply to all transition 
                        team members, including specific requirements 
                        for transition team members who will have 
                        access to nonpublic or classified information;
                            ``(ii) a description of how the transition 
                        team will--
                                    ``(I) address the role on the 
                                transition 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 
                                        Registration Act, as amended 
                                        (22 U.S.C. 611 et seq.), 
                                        foreign nationals, and other 
                                        foreign agents; and
                                            ``(cc) transition team 
                                        members with sources of income 
                                        or clients that are not 
                                        disclosed to the public;
                                    ``(II) prohibit a transition team 
                                member with conflicts of interest, 
                                including conflicts described in 
                                section 2635.402(a) and section 
                                2635.502(a) of title 5, Code of Federal 
                                Regulations, related to current or 
                                former employment, affiliations, 
                                clients, or investments, 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 
                                eligible candidate becomes the 
                                President-elect;
                            ``(iii) a Code of Ethical Conduct, to which 
                        each transition team member will sign and be 
                        subject to, that reflects the content of the 
                        ethics plans under this paragraph and at a 
                        minimum requires each transition team member 
                        to--
                                    ``(I) seek authorization from 
                                transition team leaders or their 
                                designees before seeking, on behalf of 
                                the transition, access to any nonpublic 
                                information;
                                    ``(II) keep confidential any 
                                nonpublic 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 
                                information provided in the course of 
                                transition duties, in any manner, for 
                                personal or private gain for the member 
                                or any other party at any time during 
                                or after the transition; and
                            ``(iv) a description of how the transition 
                        team will enforce the Code of Ethical Conduct, 
                        including the names of the transition team 
                        members responsible for enforcement, oversight, 
                        and compliance.
                    ``(C) Publicly available.--The transition team 
                shall make the ethics plan described in this paragraph 
                publicly available on the Internet website of the 
                General Services Administration the earlier of--
                            ``(i) the day on which the memorandum of 
                        understanding is completed; or
                            ``(ii) October 1.''; and
            (3) in section 6(b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1)--
                            (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 
                        ``and'' at the end;
                            (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking the 
                        period at the end and inserting a semicolon; 
                        and
                            (iii) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(C) a list of all positions each transition team member 
        has held outside the Federal Government for the previous 12-
        month period, including paid, unpaid, and uncompensated 
        positions;
            ``(D) sources of compensation of each transition team 
        member exceeding $5,000 a year for the previous 12-month 
        period;
            ``(E) a description of the role of each transition team 
        member, including a list of any policy issues that the member 
        expects to work on, and a list of agencies the member expects 
        to interact with, while serving on the transition team;
            ``(F) a list of any issues from which each transition team 
        member will be recused while serving as a member of the 
        transition team pursuant to the transition team ethics plan 
        outlined in section 4(g)(3); and
            ``(G) an affirmation that no transition team member has a 
        financial conflict of interest that precludes the member from 
        working on the matters described in subparagraph (E).'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ``not later than 
                2 business days'' after ``public''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(3) The head of a Federal department or agency, or their 
designee, shall not permit access to the Federal department or agency, 
or employees of such department or agency, that would not be provided 
to a member of the public for any transition team member who does not 
make the disclosures listed under paragraph (1).''.
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