U.S. Sens. Elizabeth and Ed Markey joined fellow Democrats this week in pushing for federal legislation that seeks to enhance ethics requirements presidential transition teams must meet -- an issue which has surfaced in wake of President Donald Trump’s 2017 transition.

The Massachusetts senators signed on to a bill, known as the “Transition Team Ethics Improvement Act,” that would ensure the government is focused on areas of public interest, and not those promoted by lobbyists, during presidential transitions.

Sponsors argued that such legislation is needed as members of presidential transition teams are not required to comply with federal ethics laws, even though they receive federal financial support and access to executive agencies, non-public documents and other resources.

Warren, who is among several Democrats eying a 2020 White House run, contended that currently it’s “too easy for the wealthy and well-connected to rig the system to their own benefit during presidential transitions."

“The Transition Team Ethics Improvement Act puts the government’s focus during transitions where it belongs: on the needs of the American people," she said in a statement.

Specifically, the bill would require eligible presidential candidates to develop and release transition team ethics plans, as well as to disclose how they will address their own conflicts of interest before the election.

Warren’s office noted that while recent presidents-elect have adopted ethics plans, the law does not currently require such disclosures.

The legislation would further require transition team members to sign an ethics-specific code of conduct, set minimum requirements for ethics plans, enhance disclosure requirements and strengthen congressional oversight of transition team members receiving security clearances.

Warren formally introduced the bill -- which is a companion version to a similar U.S. House proposal -- in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

Markey joined a dozen other Democrats in signing on as co-sponsors of the measure.

U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Boston, and Stephen Lynch, D-South Boston, meanwhile, are among the co-sponsors of the House bill.

The proposals come after a September 2017 Government Accountability Office report found the Trump transition team ignored advice from the Office of Government Ethics and did not follow past precedents for presidential transitions or ethics, Warren’s office noted.

The GAO review found that the Trump transition team did not develop an enforcement mechanism for its ethics code, resulting in some members not complying with such policies.