Transition Team Ethics Improvement Act

II 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. KLO- BUCHAR, 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 re- ferred 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 Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Transition Team Eth- 4 ics Improvement Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ETHICS PROGRAMS. 6 The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 7 102 note) is amended— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:19 Feb 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S338.IS S338 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 338 IS (1) in section 3(f) by adding at the end the fol- 1 lowing: 2 ‘‘(3) The President-elect shall submit to the Com- 3 mittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 4 of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Re- 5 form of the House of Representatives a report with a list 6 of— 7 ‘‘(A) any individual for whom an application for 8 a security clearance was submitted, not later than 9 10 days after the date on which the application was 10 submitted; and 11 ‘‘(B) any individual provided a security clear- 12 ance, not later than 10 days after the date on which 13 the security clearance was provided.’’; 14 (2) in section 4— 15 (A) in subsection (a)— 16 (i) in paragraph (3), by striking 17 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 18 (ii) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 19 paragraph (5); and 20 (iii) by inserting after paragraph (3) 21 the following: 22 ‘‘(4) the term ‘nonpublic information’— 23 ‘‘(A) means information from the Federal 24 Government that a transition team member ob- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:19 Feb 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S338.IS S338 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 338 IS tains as part of the employment of the member 1 that such member knows or reasonably should 2 know has not been made available to the gen- 3 eral public; and 4 ‘‘(B) includes information that has not 5 been released to the public that a transition 6 team member knows or reasonably should 7 know— 8 ‘‘(i) is exempt from disclosure under 9 section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 10 or otherwise protected from disclosure by 11 law; and 12 ‘‘(ii) is not authorized by the appro- 13 priate government agency or official to be 14 released to the public; and’’; and 15 (B) in subsection (g)— 16 (i) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘No- 17 vember’’ and inserting ‘‘October’’; and 18 (ii) by adding at the end the fol- 19 lowing: 20 ‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each memorandum of 22 understanding under paragraph (1) shall in- 23 clude an agreement that the eligible candidate 24 will implement and enforce an ethics plan to 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:19 Feb 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S338.IS S338 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 338 IS guide the conduct of the transition beginning on 1 the date on which the eligible candidate be- 2 comes the President-elect. 3 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—The ethics plan shall 4 include, at a minimum— 5 ‘‘(i) a description of the ethics re- 6 quirements that will apply to all transition 7 team members including any specific re- 8 quirement for transition team members 9 who will have access to nonpublic or classi- 10 fied information; 11 ‘‘(ii) a description of how the transi- 12 tion team will— 13 ‘‘(I) address the role on the tran- 14 sition team of— 15 ‘‘(aa) registered lobbyists 16 under the Lobbying Disclosure 17 Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et 18 seq.) and individuals who were 19 former lobbyists registered under 20 that Act; 21 ‘‘(bb) persons registered 22 under the Foreign Agents Reg- 23 istration Act (22 U.S.C. 611 et 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:19 Feb 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S338.IS S338 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 338 IS seq.), foreign nationals, and other 1 foreign agents; and 2 ‘‘(cc) transition team mem- 3 bers with sources of income or 4 clients that are not disclosed to 5 the public; 6 ‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team 7 member with personal conflicts of in- 8 terest described in section 208 of title 9 18, United States Code, from working 10 on particular matters involving spe- 11 cific parties that affect the interests 12 of such member; and 13 ‘‘(III) address how the covered 14 eligible candidate will address their 15 own conflicts of interest during a 16 Presidential term if the covered eligi- 17 ble candidate becomes the President- 18 elect; 19 ‘‘(iii) a Code of Ethical Conduct, to 20 which each member of the transition team 21 will sign and be subject to, that reflects 22 the content of the ethics plans under this 23 paragraph and at a minimum requires 24 transition team members to— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:19 Feb 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S338.IS S338 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 338 IS ‘‘(I) seek authorization from 1 transition team leaders or their des- 2 ignees before seeking, on behalf of the 3 transition, access to any nonpublic in- 4 formation; 5 ‘‘(II) keep confidential any non- 6 public information provided in the 7 course of the duties of the member 8 with the transition and exclusively use 9 such information for the purposes of 10 the transition; and 11 ‘‘(III) not use any nonpublic in- 12 formation provided in the course of 13 transition duties, in any manner, for 14 personal or private gain for the mem- 15 ber or any other party at any time 16 during or after the transition; and 17 ‘‘(iv) a description of how the transi- 18 tion team will enforce the Code of Ethical 19 Conduct, including the names of the mem- 20 bers of the transition team responsible for 21 enforcement, oversight, and compliance. 22 ‘‘(C) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.—The transi- 23 tion team shall make the ethics plan described 24 in this paragraph publicly available on the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:19 Feb 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S338.IS S338 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 338 IS Internet website of the General Services Admin- 1 istration the earlier of— 2 ‘‘(i) the day on which the memo- 3 randum of understanding is completed; or 4 ‘‘(ii) October 1.’’; and 5 (3) in section 6(b)— 6 (A) in paragraph (1)— 7 (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 8 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 9 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 10 the period at the end and inserting a semi- 11 colon; and 12 (iii) by adding at the end the fol- 13 lowing: 14 ‘‘(C) a list of all positions each transition 15 team member has held outside the Federal Gov- 16 ernment for the previous 12-month period, in- 17 cluding paid and unpaid positions; 18 ‘‘(D) sources of compensation of each tran- 19 sition team member exceeding $5,000 a year for 20 the previous 12-month period; 21 ‘‘(E) a description of the role of the mem- 22 ber on the transition team, including a list of 23 any policy issues that the member expects to 24 work on, and a list of agencies the member ex- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:19 Feb 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S338.IS S338 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •S 338 IS pects to interact with, while serving on the 1 transition team; 2 ‘‘(F) a list of any issues from which each 3 transition team member will be recused while 4 serving as a member of the transition team pur- 5 suant to the transition team ethics plan out- 6 lined in section 4(g)(3); and 7 ‘‘(G) an affirmation that the transition 8 team member does not have a financial conflict 9 of interest that precludes the member from 10 working on the matters described in subpara- 11 graph (E).’’; 12 (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘not 13 later than 2 business days’’ after ‘‘public’’; and 14 (C) by adding at the end the following: 15 ‘‘(3) The head of a Federal department or 16 agency, or their designee, shall not permit access to 17 the agency or employees of the agency that would 18 not be provided to a member of the public for any 19 transition team member who does not make the dis- 20 closures listed under paragraph (1).’’. 21 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:19 Feb 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S338.IS S338 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS