Post-election Transition Milestones
1). Recognizing the election winner and providing transition services
The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 changed the process by which presidential candidates receive support from federal agencies to prepare to govern.
Prior to the election, the General Services Administration offers all eligible candidates office space and administrative support, such as a secure IT network and telecommunications, to help transition teams put an operating infrastructure in place before the election. Under new changes in law, this support continues for an additional five days after the election if neither candidate concedes.
Previously, GSA only began to provide this post-election assistance once it “ascertained” the successful candidate. Now, GSA provides this support—including facilitating candidate team access to federal agencies—to “multiple apparent successful candidates” if there is no concession within five days of the election. This support must continue to multiple candidates until GSA determines a “sole apparent successful candidate.”
These changes account for the possibility of prolonged uncertainty after the election. The law also outlines factors for the GSA administrator to consider when determining the apparent winner, such as the status of legal challenges to the election outcome and certified state results.
Once there is a concession—or the GSA administrator determines a “sole apparent successful candidate”— GSA continues to provide support to the president-elect and vice president-elect for up to 60 days after the inauguration. This includes providing funds to pay expenses for staff, experts, postage and transition team travel. The agency also helps members of a president-elect’s transition staff access federal agencies as part of the agency review process (see below).
Typically, three agreements are put in place between a candidate’s team and the federal government to facilitate the transition: one to receive support services from GSA (described above); one with the White House that sets the conditions for an incoming administration to access federal agencies after the election; and another with the Justice Department regarding security clearance requests for prospective transition team members who will need to access classified information. The agreements also require candidates to make public their ethics plan for the transition team and limit private contributions to the transition effort.
Learn more about the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act.
Learn more about how the federal government supports presidential transitions.
2). Conducting agency review
Agency review—the process of informing new administrations about the major issues facing the federal government’s various departments—is critical to the successful handoff of presidential power. The transition operation’s review teams assess an agency’s work and workforce, examine how they fit into the president-elect’s policy priorities and collect other critical information. As noted above, the conditions of agency access post-election are outlined in an agreement with the White House that is finalized, to the maximum extent practicable, by Oct. 1 (see above).
Federal agencies have been hard at work for over six months to prepare for the agency review process. In the spring, every agency appoints a senior executive to serve as their agency transition director, as required by law. These career executives assemble teams and prepare briefing papers about their agency’s major programs and priorities; update organization charts and lists of leadership positions; and develop other resources to share with candidate teams. They also identify a workspace for each candidate team to meet with agency personnel.
Under new language passed by Congress in 2022 (see above), federal agencies must be prepared to brief agency review teams of more than one candidate, starting five days after the election, unless all but one candidate has conceded. Federal agencies are required to provide equal access to information to each team, regardless of party affiliation, during this time. Then, once GSA determines the “sole apparent successful candidate,” access to agencies continues only for this successful candidate.
The agency review process should be completed by January—ideally well before the inauguration—so incoming agency heads have ample time to be briefed and learn about the agencies they will lead.
Listen to our “Transition Lab” podcast for more on agency review.
3). Appointing leaders to top positions
To govern effectively, incoming presidents must make around 4,000 political appointments—more than 1,300 of whom require Senate confirmation. These roles include Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, deputy and assistant secretaries, general counsels and others.
Filling these positions is critical to executing a policy agenda at the start of a presidency. Between November and January, the transition team reviews the current administration’s directives and regulatory actions, prepares executive actions for the new president and develops a budget request to support major initiatives, required by the first Monday in February.
To implement these plans, transition teams should prioritize top White House and agency roles to fill, create lists of potential appointees and conduct some initial vetting, ideally in the spring of an election year. They should also identify potential holdovers, appointees who stay on during a new administration.
The post-election period is a sprint to ensure appointees can take their positions shortly after the inauguration and are ready to lead. In November and December, the transition team should identify and announce nominees for critical Senate-confirmed positions, coordinate with the FBI on background checks for these nominees and help them navigate the Senate confirmation process.
In January, the Senate traditionally works to vet the president’s Cabinet and other top officials, with the goal of putting them to a vote on or shortly after Inauguration Day. Transition teams should lay the groundwork for the Senate to conduct hearings on other high-priority nominations in January. Ideally, the Senate starts confirming these nominees in February.
It should be noted that it takes the Senate an average of more than 190 days to approve a political appointee, about four times as long as it did under President Reagan. As such, it has become virtually impossible for presidents to fill every Senate-confirmed seat. The result has been increased vacancies and the overuse of acting officials who are often dual-hatted and lack the perceived authority of a permanent leader.
To account for these delays, President Joe Biden placed a high priority on filling non-Senate confirmed, presidentially appointed positions early in his presidency. More than 1,100 of these individuals took office on the first day of Biden’s term. These appointees helped implement some of the president’s earliest executive orders and laid the groundwork for his policy agenda. However, the Senate confirmed only 355 of Biden’s nominees by the end of his first year—around 300 less than he nominated and far fewer than Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Visit our Political Appointee Tracker.
Explore our research on the political appointments process.
4). Processing security clearances and conducting national security briefings
The FBI and other agencies quickly conduct background checks for high-level national security leaders to ensure these individuals can take office immediately after the inauguration.
The incumbent administration also must provide a new president-elect with a classified summary on national security, covert military operations and pending decisions on the possible use of military force as soon as possible after the election.
In addition, the outgoing administration must host at least one tabletop exercise to help the president-elect’s team better understand how to diffuse a national security crisis. This practice originated during the 2008-2009 transition, when the George W. Bush administration hosted two tabletop exercises with members of President-elect Barack Obama’s team.
As noted above, the length and complexity of the Senate confirmation process makes filling national security leadership roles challenging. According to our research, none of the last four presidents had more than 55% of the top 30 national security positions filled by their 30th day in office.
These vacancies make the U.S. especially vulnerable to threats during a presidential transition. For example, the delayed 2000 transition helped prevent President George W. Bush from getting his full national security team in place early in his term. This challenge made the country more susceptible to a terrorist attack like 9/11, according to government officials and subsequent reports.
Read more about the security clearance process in our Presidential Transition Guide.