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A core part of an effective transition and successful handoff of presidential power is agency review, which is the process of informing a new administration about the major issues facing the federal government’s various departments. It is key to understanding the immediate concerns and decisions that will confront an incoming team.  

Each transition team will set up their agency review operations differently, informed by the priorities of the candidate. They coordinate closely with the policy and personnel teams and ideally have a broad understanding of the functions of the various federal agencies and offices within the White House where they will land. 

An agency review team will typically grow over the course of the transition, from a handful of staff at the outset to a much larger team that will have oversight of more than 100 federal agencies across the government. Detailed review and examination, however, will likely focus on several dozen of the most high-profile agencies. For example, the Biden transition team built large agency review teams for 38 agencies consisting of over 500 staff and volunteers, producing overview briefings and proposed budgets.  

In preparing the incoming administration for Day One, representatives of a president-elect’s transition team will typically arrive at agencies in November to get up to speed on information to help make decisions on certain appointments, create briefing materials, review agency budgets and identify pressing issues and opportunities to implement the president-elect’s priorities. For example, during the 2016 transition, agency review teams were asked to prepare a two-page summary covering the budget, key agency initiatives, former administration policies that should be kept or discarded and proposals that an agency might want to pursue under a Trump administration. 

The agency review process is usually 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. For example, in 2020, agency review teams briefed eight high-level nominees and provided information to help prepare for Senate confirmation hearings. 

Supporting the agency review process are the career officials who serve as the primary point of contact for agency review teams post-election. 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 a president-elect’s team. They also identify a workspace for each candidate team to meet with agency personnel. 

The conditions of agency access post-election are outlined in an agreement between the White House and eligible candidate that is finalized, to the maximum extent practicable, by Oct. 1 of an election year. Without this agreement in place, agency review team members do not have access to critical intel about decisions and challenges facing federal agencies – including information about national security risks. On Nov. 26, 2024, the Trump transition announced they have signed this agreement, allowing for certain, authorized members of the Trump transition team to have access to agency and White House employees, facilities and information. 

Listen to our “Transition Lab” podcast for more on agency review. To learn more about other parts of the presidential transition, please see the Center for Presidential Transition’s comprehensive guide on presidential transition planning here. 

Agency review—the process of informing new administrations about the work of the federal government’s various departments—is a critical aspect of presidential transition planning. In this episode of Transition Lab, host David Marchick speaks to Lisa Brown, co-chair of agency review for the 2008 Obama-Biden transition team. Marchick and Brown discuss how this process works, why it is so important and the critical role played by career staff.   

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Read the highlights:

Marchick asked Brown why agency review is vital to presidential transitions.

Brown: “When [presidents] actually start governing on Inauguration Day, [agency review teams help ensure] they are ready to hit the ground running….The agency teams collect … critical information that the [president-elect] and his or her senior key advisors need to make strategic policy [as well as] budgetary and personnel decisions.…You don’t want gaps when one president leaves and another one comes in….You want to make sure that when the new [administration] comes in, they have the information they need to handle the crisis of the day.”

Marchick asked  why career staff are so important to the agency review process.

Brown: “If you’ve ever worked in the government, you realize how critically important career employees are. They are in these agencies [and] they’re the ones who know how to get things done. You need them to be your friends. You need to be collaborating with them. The worst thing that you could do during agency review is to go in and alienate the career staff because you will find that it is much harder to get things done when you take office.”

Marchick asked  how career staff tend to view agency review teams.

Brown: “I have found that career employees are professionals and they are accustomed to a change in political administration….They care about the mission of their agency. They care about the work that they’re doing. So they do want to partner with you to get that work done.”

Marchick asked Brown about her experience working with the Bush administration in 2008.  

Brown: “President [George W.] Bush and his team in the White House really set the tone … for collaboration. They wanted to ensure that it was as seamless a transition as possible. This was after 9/11, so they had a real sense of responsibility to the country.”

Marchick asked Brown to discuss what she learned from spearheading agency reviews after the 2008 election. 

Brown: “You need to anticipate demand for your work product quite early. The pre-election work that you do is vital….Post-election, you really do want to get people into the agencies very quickly so that you get that information fast to inform policy and to inform the personnel, particularly [during] confirmation hearings….Really think about how [to] best integrate policy teams with the agency review teams….I think you really want people [on the agency review teams] who are … familiar with the president-elect’s policies…..You [also] have to think about [creating] a structure with enough redundancy that your critical work continues … [even if] … somebody [takes on] a new role.” 

Marchick asked Brown to describe how Joe Biden should handle the agency review process if he wins the election, but has an abbreviated transition.

Brown: “[A shorter post-election transition] puts a premium on engaging people who have worked in the government before. That is not to say that you don’t want fresh blood when you actually enter office on nomination day and after … You absolutely want a mix of new people and previous experience….Democrats have been out of power for not yet four years. There’s a lot of knowledge that people have that will still be relevant.”