December 28, 2020
Overview The various departments and agencies in the executive branch must be prepared for the significant policy and personnel changes that will occur with the election of a new president. In order to do this, agencies should designate a senior career official to serve as a transition coordinator in January of a presidential election year.... Read More
December 28, 2020
Overview A successful presidential transition requires planning and preparation not only on the part of the incoming transition team, but also on the part of the outgoing president and administration. The 2008 Bush to Obama transition was widely regarded as one of the smoothest in recent history. Bush made the transition a top priority during... Read More
December 28, 2020
Overview It is the job of the presidential transition policy team to prioritize the major issues and campaign promises that a candidate ran on and lay the groundwork for these policies to be implemented once the president-elect takes office. Policies must be prioritized and built into a formal agenda and implementation plan for the new... Read More
December 28, 2020
Overview The operations and support functions of the transition team must provide the backbone for a fast moving, rapidly growing and changing office from spring of the election year through the inauguration. The various components (operations, human resources, legal, communications, congressional relations and president-elect support) can be structured in different ways, such as establishing each... Read More
December 28, 2020
Incoming Administration Overview The goal of a presidential transition team is not only to help the president-elect prepare to take office, but to fill roughly 4,000 politically appointed positions, including more than 1,000 jobs requiring Senate confirmation. Identifying, selecting and securing Senate confirmation of presidential appointees requires a thorough understanding of the number and types... Read More
December 28, 2020
Incoming Administration Overview The agency review team is responsible for collecting information about the unique roles and responsibilities of each major department and agency of the federal government, and providing information that is relevant, useful and important to the new administration. Incoming leadership needs a clear sense of the strengths, challenges, culture and pressing issues... Read More
December 28, 2020
Incoming Administration: Policy Ongoing Work with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) career staff to develop a “shadow” presidential budget aligned with the president-elect’s top policy priorities (November–February) Presidential Transition Guide, Ch. 4, Policy Implementation, Develop a presidential budget A major task of the policy office is to begin laying the groundwork for the first presidential... Read More
December 28, 2020
Incoming Administration: Policy Ongoing Draft new executive orders to implement as soon as the president-elect takes office (November–January) Presidential Transition Guide, Ch. 4, Policy Implementation, Review outgoing administration’s regulations and executive orders The policy team, in cooperation with legal counsel, also should begin drafting the first executive orders and directives for the new president to issue... Read More
December 28, 2020
Incoming Administration: Policy Ongoing Draft new executive orders to implement as soon as the president-elect takes office (November–January) Presidential Transition Guide, Ch. 4, Policy Implementation, Review outgoing administration’s regulations and executive orders The policy team, in cooperation with legal counsel, also should begin drafting the first executive orders and directives for the new president to issue... Read More
December 28, 2020
Incoming Administration: Policy Ongoing Meet with agency review teams to gather relevant information to refine and augment the 100- or 200-day policy implementation plan and provide agency review teams with an updated 100- or 200-day plan to inform conversations with agency staff as well as the agency review strategic briefing paper (November–December) Presidential Transition Guide, Ch.... Read More