[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 964 Reported in House (RH)]
<DOC>
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 Reform
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]
_______________________________________________________________________
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) Not later than 10 days after submitting an application 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;
(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 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
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 personal financial
conflicts 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
eligible candidate will address their
own personal financial 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 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 for 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).''.
Union Calendar No. 306
116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 964
[Report No. 116-382]
_______________________________________________________________________
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.
_______________________________________________________________________
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