The Center for Presidential Transition’s comprehensive guide on the activities required during the transition. This guide for the 2024 presidential election cycle was produced in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group. It features detailed outlines of transition best practices, historical materials from past transitions, and recommendations for a successful presidential transition to a new or second-term administration.
Federal agencies face a cascading series of challenges before and after a presidential election and into the early months of a new or second-term administration. Since 2008, the Partnership for Public Service has provided resources to federal agencies, while promoting knowledge-sharing and collaboration, to strengthen presidential transitions.
The Agency Transition Guide has been developed by the Partnership’s Center for Presidential Transition® and Boston Consulting Group, informed by conversations with federal leaders and other presidential transition experts. It provides lessons learned from past transitions at federal agencies and includes best practices and key decision points to help senior career executives lead successful transition planning efforts.
While this guide focuses on presidential transitions, most federal agencies will also experience a change in political leadership at least once during an administration. The practices outlined in this guide apply to principal leadership transitions independent of the election cycle.
This resource outlines the steps required to create, organize and run a transition team from an operational standpoint. Topics include setting up the 501(c)(4) nonprofit structure, budgeting and funding and establishing human resources functions. Sample position description for the operations director is also included.
The Center for Presidential Transition’s comprehensive guide on the activities required during the transition. This guide for the 2020 presidential election cycle was produced in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group. It features detailed outlines of transition best practices, historical materials from past transitions, and recommendations for a successful presidential transition to a new or second-term administration.
Report of the contributions received by the Clinton-Kaine Transition Fund and the expenses incurred reported to the General Services Administration as required by the Presidential Transition Act.
The code of ethics details the expectations for members of the incoming Clinton transition team. The document includes guidelines for accepting gifts, disclosing previous lobbying experience, disqualifications associated with conflicts of interest, and other standards of conduct expected from employees of the Clinton-Kaine Transition.
A matrix that oulines the pros and cons of having the White House vs. Cabinet Secretary decide appointments. Examples include: Hillary Clinton, Steven Chu, and Jimmy Carter.
In an open letter, the Center’s six advisory board members—Democrats and Republicans who have been involved in planning, executing and closely observing presidential transitions—urge the presidential candidates to start their transition planning early to avoid critical missteps.
Based on our examination of presidential transitions, and in particular the 2008–2009 experience, it is time once again to revisit and amend the presidential transition law to place requirements on the White House to better facilitate transition activities, and to enable campaigns and the president-elect to be better prepared to govern.
In this Ready to Govern report, we examine the three phases of the 2008–2009 transition—the pre-election timeframe, the period from the election to the inauguration and President Obama’s first year in office. In each section, we provide a short narrative based on the experiences and reflections of some key participants in the transition, and offer a series of recommendations for each phase on a broad range of transition issues. These include:
- Starting the transition process earlier and making it more transparent so there is no longer a stigma on preparing.
- Reducing the number of Senate-confirmed politically appointed positions.
- Congress and the White House to agree on a calendar of appointments so 500 key officials are confirmed at the six-month mark, rather than the current norm of a year.