Bill Summary
This legislation, called the "Transition Team Ethics Improvement Act", aims to amend the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 by requiring the development of ethics plans for transition teams and increasing transparency in their activities. It requires the President-elect to submit a report of any individuals who have applied for security clearances or have been given security clearances within 10 days of the application or clearance. It also adds a definition for "nonpublic information" and sets guidelines for how transition teams should handle this type of information. The act also requires each transition team to have an ethics plan in place, which includes a Code of Ethical Conduct for all team members and a method for enforcing it. This ethics plan must be made publicly available on the General Services Administration's website. Additionally, members of the transition team must disclose their positions, sources of compensation, and any potential conflicts of interest. Federal departments and agencies are also prohibited from providing access to any member of the transition team who has not made these disclosures.
Possible Impacts
1. The bill requires all members of a transition team to disclose any nonpublic information they obtain during their employment, which could potentially affect people who have provided such information to the team. This could make them hesitant to share information, limiting the effectiveness of the transition process.
2. The bill also requires a Code of Ethical Conduct for all transition team members, which includes restrictions on using nonpublic information for personal gain. This could prevent team members from using their positions for personal gain and could increase transparency and accountability in the transition process.
3. The bill also requires the transition team to publicly disclose information about the team members, including their positions outside of the government, sources of compensation exceeding $5,000, and any conflicts of interest. This could increase transparency and prevent conflicts of interest from influencing the transition process. It could also potentially discourage individuals with conflicts of interest from joining the team.
[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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