January-February 2016
Federal Agencies
To-Dos
Identify a senior career official to serve as transition coordinator and oversee transition planning
Presidential Transition Guide, Ch. 5, Train review teams to enter agencies
The 2008 transition for the Department of Defense provides a good example of agency preparation working well, although the huge difference in that case was that Robert Gates, George W. Bush’s defense secretary, was tapped to remain on the job. An overall tone of cooperation was set by Gates and relayed to the outgoing Bush administration officials, who gave clear instructions to each agency to cooperate fully with the transition team. Gates tapped Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy Thomas Tesch to lead the transition effort, giving Tesch the resources and personnel he needed to plan for the transition and welcome the incoming administration. Tesch, whose official title in this role was director of the Transition Task Force, emphasized that the focus of the transition would be on continuity in a time of war. He assembled a small team of senior career staff from organizations within the Pentagon responsible for transition assistance coordination. This team developed the official transition plan, requirements briefing materials and organized resources across the Defense Department, which included administrative activities such as scheduling appointments and arranging parking. The task force also developed a list of political appointees and non-career members of the Senior Executive Service to stay on into the new administration for a time to ensure continuity.