Transition Team Ethics Improvement Act
Latest action. Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 306.
Transition Team Ethics Improvement Act
This bill establishes ethics requirements for a President-elect's transition team.
The bill requires each President-elect or Vice-President-elect, not later than 10 days after submitting an application for a security clearance for an individual and not later than 10 days after any such individual is granted a security clearance, to report to Congress with the name of such individual.
The Federal Transition Coordinator must negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the transition representative of each eligible candidate by October 1 (currently November 1) of a year during which a presidential election occurs.
Each memorandum of understanding 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 candidate becomes the President-elect.
The ethics plan shall include
a description of the ethics requirements that will apply to all transition team members;
a description of how the transition team will address the role on the team of registered lobbyists, former registered lobbyists, persons registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, foreign nationals, other foreign agents, and transition team members with sources of income or clients that are not disclosed to the public;
a Code of Ethical Conduct, to which each transition team member will sign and be subject to, that meets specified requirements; and
a description of how the transition team will enforce the Code of Ethical Conduct.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to House" stage on January 27, 2020. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on January 27, 2020: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 306.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 116th Congress (2019-20), 344 of the 14,345 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D-MD) introduced it on February 5, 2019, and 18 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 18 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on February 5, 2019, 2774 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2418 days ago, on January 27, 2020.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 116th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2021 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers