The Cost of a Presidential Transition: Who Foots the Bill? 

A well-resourced presidential transition enables an incoming administration to prepare for the complex task of governing, appoint key personnel and address immediate national and global challenges from day one. But how much does this crucial endeavor cost and where does this funding come from? 

The Price of a Transition  

Presidential transitions are expensive undertakings and costs easily run into the tens of millions of dollars. The incoming team must quickly prepare by securing office space, setting up technology, training staff and appointing about 4,000 political appointees, including Cabinet and senior White House officials. These expenses are met by private fundraising sources and federal appropriations.  

Public Funding for Transitions 

Recognizing the need for an effective transfer of power, Congress passed the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, creating a framework to provide federal support and resources to eligible candidates and their teams as they prepare for office. The General Services Administration received $10.4 million for its pre-election activities in its fiscal 2024 appropriation aimed at supporting over 100 members of each eligible candidate’s pre-election team at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

For fiscal 2025, GSA requested $11.2 million to assist the president-elect after the 2024 election, with $7.2 million set aside for supporting the incoming administration. This support provides the president-elect’s team with funding for compensation of transition staff, costs associated with travel, communications services and printing and postage costs. 

Private Funding for Transitions 

Since 2012, presidential transition teams have relied on a combination of public and private funding to support their pre- and post-election preparations. In that year, Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s transition team became the first to utilize pre-election funding available under the 2010 update of the transition law while also spending $1.4 million in private donations to cover additional costs. 

In 2016, President Donald Trump’s transition team also used public funding and $4.6 million from private contributions to help facilitate its transition efforts. Similarly, in 2020, President Joe Biden’s transition team also accepted the public funding available in addition to supplementing it with privately raised funds. The Biden team spent $24.3 million of the privately raised money to ensure a smooth transition of power. 

As of this blog’s publication, President-elect Trump’s 2024 transition team has not yet signed the GSA’s Memorandum of Understanding. Signing the MOU is a prerequisite for accessing public funding and comes with requirements such as publicly disclosing privately raised funds and adhering to a $5,000 limit on individual private donations. 

To learn more about the presidential transition process and how presidents-elect prepare to take office, visit the Center for Presidential Transition website. 

This blog post was authored by Christian Aguirre, an intern with the Center for Presidential Transition.