Transition Team Ethics Improvement Act

IB 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 Re- form 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] VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 964 RH 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. VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 964 RH 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 Ethics 4 Improvement Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION ETHICS PROGRAMS. 6 The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102 7 note) is amended— 8 (1) in section 3(f), by adding at the end the fol- 9 lowing: 10 ‘‘(3) Not later than 10 days after submitting an appli- 11 cation for a security clearance for any individual, and not 12 later than 10 days after any such individual is granted 13 a security clearance (including an interim clearance), each 14 eligible candidate (as that term is described in subsection 15 (h)(4)(A)) or the President-elect (as the case may be) shall 16 submit a report containing the name of such individual to 17 the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the House of 18 Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 19 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate.’’; 20 (2) in section 4— 21 (A) in subsection (a)— 22 (i) in paragraph (3), by striking 23 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 964 RH (ii) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 1 paragraph (5); and 2 (iii) by inserting after paragraph (3) 3 the following: 4 ‘‘(4) the term ‘nonpublic information’— 5 ‘‘(A) means information from the Federal 6 Government that a transition team member ob- 7 tains as part of the employment of such member 8 that the member knows or reasonably should 9 know has not been made available to the general 10 public; and 11 ‘‘(B) includes information that has not been 12 released to the public that a transition team 13 member knows or reasonably should know— 14 ‘‘(i) is exempt from disclosure under 15 section 552 of title 5, United States Code, or 16 otherwise protected from disclosure by law; 17 and 18 ‘‘(ii) is not authorized by the appro- 19 priate agency or official to be released to the 20 public; and’’; and 21 (B) in subsection (g)— 22 (i) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘No- 23 vember’’ and inserting ‘‘October’’; and 24 (ii) by adding at the end the following: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 964 RH ‘‘(3) ETHICS PLAN.— 1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each memorandum of 2 understanding under paragraph (1) shall include 3 an agreement that the eligible candidate will im- 4 plement and enforce an ethics plan to guide the 5 conduct of the transition beginning on the date 6 on which the eligible candidate becomes the 7 President-elect. 8 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—The ethics plan shall in- 9 clude, at a minimum— 10 ‘‘(i) a description of the ethics require- 11 ments that will apply to all transition team 12 members, including specific requirements 13 for transition team members who will have 14 access to nonpublic or classified informa- 15 tion; 16 ‘‘(ii) a description of how the transi- 17 tion team will— 18 ‘‘(I) address the role on the transi- 19 tion team of— 20 ‘‘(aa) registered lobbyists 21 under the Lobbying Disclosure Act 22 of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) 23 and individuals who were for- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 964 RH merly registered lobbyists under 1 that Act; 2 ‘‘(bb) persons registered 3 under the Foreign Agents Reg- 4 istration Act, as amended (22 5 U.S.C. 611 et seq.), foreign na- 6 tionals, and other foreign agents; 7 and 8 ‘‘(cc) transition team mem- 9 bers with sources of income or cli- 10 ents that are not disclosed to the 11 public; 12 ‘‘(II) prohibit a transition team 13 member with personal financial con- 14 flicts of interest as described in section 15 208 of title 18, United States Code, 16 from working on particular matters 17 involving specific parties that affect the 18 interests of such member; and 19 ‘‘(III) address how the covered eli- 20 gible candidate will address their own 21 personal financial conflicts of interest 22 during a Presidential term if the cov- 23 ered eligible candidate becomes the 24 President-elect; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 964 RH ‘‘(iii) a Code of Ethical Conduct, to 1 which each transition team member will 2 sign and be subject to, that reflects the con- 3 tent of the ethics plans under this para- 4 graph and at a minimum requires each 5 transition team member to— 6 ‘‘(I) seek authorization from tran- 7 sition team leaders or their designees 8 before seeking, on behalf of the transi- 9 tion, access to any nonpublic informa- 10 tion; 11 ‘‘(II) keep confidential any non- 12 public information provided in the 13 course of the duties of the member with 14 the transition and exclusively use such 15 information for the purposes of the 16 transition; and 17 ‘‘(III) not use any nonpublic in- 18 formation provided in the course of 19 transition duties, in any manner, for 20 personal or private gain for the mem- 21 ber or any other party at any time 22 during or after the transition; and 23 ‘‘(iv) a description of how the transi- 24 tion team will enforce the Code of Ethical 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 964 RH Conduct, including the names of the transi- 1 tion team members responsible for enforce- 2 ment, oversight, and compliance. 3 ‘‘(C) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.—The transition 4 team shall make the ethics plan described in this 5 paragraph publicly available on the website of 6 the General Services Administration the earlier 7 of— 8 ‘‘(i) the day on which the memo- 9 randum of understanding is completed; or 10 ‘‘(ii) October 1.’’; and 11 (3) in section 6(b)— 12 (A) in paragraph (1)— 13 (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 14 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 15 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 16 the period at the end and inserting a semi- 17 colon; and 18 (iii) by adding at the end the fol- 19 lowing: 20 ‘‘(C) a list of all positions each transition team 21 member has held outside the Federal Government for 22 the previous 12-month period, including paid and un- 23 paid positions; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 964 RH ‘‘(D) sources of compensation for each transition 1 team member exceeding $5,000 a year for the previous 2 12-month period; 3 ‘‘(E) a description of the role of each transition 4 team member, including a list of any policy issues 5 that the member expects to work on, and a list of 6 agencies the member expects to interact with, while 7 serving on the transition team; 8 ‘‘(F) a list of any issues from which each transi- 9 tion team member will be recused while serving as a 10 member of the transition team pursuant to the transi- 11 tion team ethics plan outlined in section 4(g)(3); and 12 ‘‘(G) an affirmation that no transition team 13 member has a financial conflict of interest that pre- 14 cludes the member from working on the matters de- 15 scribed in subparagraph (E).’’; 16 (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘not 17 later than 2 business days’’ after ‘‘public’’; and 18 (C) by adding at the end the following: 19 ‘‘(3) The head of a Federal department or agency, or 20 their designee, shall not permit access to the Federal depart- 21 ment or agency, or employees of such department or agency, 22 that would not be provided to a member of the public for 23 any transition team member who does not make the disclo- 24 sures listed under paragraph (1).’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:12 Jan 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H964.RH H964 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS