Presidential Transition Enhancement Act of 2019

Floor Speech

I rise in support of S. 394, the Presidential Transition Enhancement Act of 2019.

First, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Johnson for taking a serious look at the needed ethics reform. The Senate has developed this legislative package in a bipartisan manner, something that we would be well served in this House to do.

At the beginning of Congress, I think the Democrats introduced H.R. 1, which was a grab bag of unrelated Democrat messaging bills. One section of H.R. 1 was really directed at the President of the United States and his administration without really addressing serious ethics reforms.

S. 394, on the other hand, is an honest ethics reform package. The bipartisan support in the Senate shows that ethics reform does not need to be a partisan exercise.

I would suggest Senator Johnson's bill addresses a number of ambiguities about how agencies work with Presidential transition teams that were identified by the Trump transition team. For example, agencies and the Presidential transition team should come to an agreement about the use and disclosure of transition team records.

The bill also establishes a requirement for a transition team's ethics plan. The plan would include consideration of how conflicts of interest would be addressed by members of the transition team and the President-elect.

I hope that we can use this for our future benefit as we work together in a bipartisan manner to make sure that ethics are addressed and stop politicizing ethics reforms.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this bill, S. 394, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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