[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 338 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 338

    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

                            February 5, 2019

    Ms. Warren (for herself, Mr. Carper, Mr. Udall, Mr. Markey, Ms. 
Klobuchar, Mrs. Feinstein, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Coons, Mrs. 
 Murray, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. Harris, and Mr. Booker) 
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 Reform of the House of Representatives 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 the member that such 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 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 transition 
                        team members 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) registered lobbyists 
                                        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 personal conflicts of 
                                interest 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 
                                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 and unpaid 
                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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