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]
[S. 2321 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2321

    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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 18, 2018

Ms. Warren (for herself, Mr. Carper, Mr. Udall, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Markey, 
Ms. Hirono, Ms. Klobuchar, and Mrs. Feinstein) introduced the following 
 bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland 
                   Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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:
    ``(3) The President-elect shall submit to the Committee on Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on 
Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives 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 member obtains as part of the 
                employment of the member that such member knows or 
                reasonably should know has not been made available to 
                the general public; and
                    ``(B) includes information that a member of the 
                transition team 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 
                        government 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 members of 
                        the transition team, including any specific 
                        requirement 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) lobbyists registered 
                                        under the Lobbying Disclosure 
                                        Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et 
                                        seq.) and individuals who were 
                                        former lobbyists registered 
                                        under that Act;
                                            ``(bb) persons registered 
                                        under the Foreign Agents 
                                        Registration Act (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, as 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 member of the transition team will sign 
                        and be subject to, that reflects the content of 
                        the ethics plans under this paragraph and at a 
                        minimum requires transition team members 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 members of the 
                        transition team 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 the member on 
                the transition team, 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 the transition team 
                member does not have 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 agency or employees of 
        the 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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