United States presidential transition

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United States presidential transition refers to the period of time in the United States between the end of a presidential election in November, and the inauguration of a new president on the following January 20. During this time the incoming President usually designates new government personnel, including selecting new Cabinet positions and government department or agency heads.

During a presidential transition, the outgoing "lame duck" President has lost many of the intangible benefits of a Presidency (e.g., being perceived as the default leader on issues of national importance) but the incoming President-elect is not yet legally empowered to affect policy. This ambiguity in the roles of the President-elect and outgoing President creates the potential for a leadership vacuum, which may be most acutely felt during wartime or times of economic crisis.^[1]

The Presidential transition culminates with the mostly ceremonial presidential inauguration. The period leading up to the date and time of the inauguration provides time for agencies to consolidate and prepare for the transfer of both Federal and Presidential records to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). NARA's mission for the American Presidency is to "preserve" and "present" Presidential records for historic purposes.^[2][3]

Process

In the United States, scheduled presidential transitions, those not brought about by a president's death or resignation from office, begin the day after the November presidential election, and conclude roughly two and a half months later, on January 20, as specified in the Twentieth Amendment. The presidential transition is regulated by The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 Pub.L. 88–277,^[4] amended by The Presidential Transitions Effectiveness Act of 1998 Pub.L. 100–398 ^[5] and The Presidential Transition Act of 2000 Pub.L. 106–293.^[6][7] The Act as amended directs the Administrator of General Services to provide facilities, funding of approximately five million dollars, access to government services, and support for a transition team, and to provide training and orientation of new government personnel and other procedures to ensure an orderly transition.

The president-elect will also usually appoint a 'presidential transition team' during the campaign to prepare for a smooth transfer of power following the presidential inauguration. A law enacted by the United States Congress in 2016 requires the incumbent President to establish "transition councils" by June of an election year to facilitate the eventual handover of power.^[8]

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), meanwhile, launched a new program called "Transition 2016" in 2016. Led by Ed DeSeve and David S. C. Chu, the program was described by NAPA as one which provide management and procedural advice to the leading candidates in establishing transition teams.^[9]

Notable transitions

Perhaps the most notable transition in US history was the 1860–1861 transition from the administration of James Buchanan to the terms of Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan held the opinion that states did not have the right to secede, but that it was also illegal for the Federal government to go to war to stop them. Between the election on November 6, 1860 and inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven states seceded and conflict between secessionist and federal forces began, leading to the American Civil War between the Northern and Southern states.

President Hoover and President–elect Roosevelt riding together to the United States Capitol prior to the March 4, 1933 presidential inauguration.

The 146 day–long presidential transition period (November 8, 1932 to March 4, 1933) at the end of Herbert Hoover's presidency, prior to the start of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, was a difficult transition period. After the election, Roosevelt refused Hoover's requests for a meeting to come up with a joint program to stop the downward spiral and calm investors, claiming it would tie his hands, and as this "guaranteed that Roosevelt took the oath of office amid such an atmosphere of crisis that Hoover had become the most hated man in America".^[10] During this period of essentially leaderless government, the U.S. economy ground to a halt as thousands of banks failed.^[11] The relationship between Hoover and Roosevelt was one of the most strained between Presidents. While Hoover had little good to say about his successor, there was little he could do. FDR, however, supposedly could and did engage in various petty official acts aimed at his predecessor, ranging from dropping him from the White House birthday greetings message list to having Hoover's name struck from the Hoover Dam along the Colorado River border, which would officially be known only as Boulder Dam until 1947.

On a more petty level, the transition between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush was marred by accusations of "damage, theft, vandalism and pranks". The General Accounting Office (GAO) estimated the cost of those pranks at $13,000 to $14,000. However, they note that similar pranks were reported in prior transitions, including the one from Bush's father to Clinton in 1993.^[12] Press secretary Ari Fleischer followed up the GAO report with a White House-produced list of alleged vandalism including removal of the W key from keyboards.^[13] The Clintons were also accused of keeping for themselves gifts meant for the White House.^[14] The Clintons denied the accusations, but agreed to pay more than $85,000 for gifts given to the first family "to eliminate even the slightest question" of impropriety.^[15]

The transition between Bush and Barack Obama was considered seamless, with Bush granting Obama's request to ask Congress to release $350 billion of bank bailout funds.^[16] At the start of his inaugural speech, Obama praised Bush "for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and co-operation he has shown throughout this transition".^[17]

The White House website was redesigned and “cut over” at exactly 12:01pm, January 20, 2009. In addition to the January 20, 2009 at 12:01pm threshold, the Bush Administration successfully transferred all electronic records for the Presidential components within the Executive Office of the President to the NARA. Included in these records was more than 80 terabytes of data, more than 200 million emails and 4 million photos.^[18] Just as important however, the information system was provided to the Obama administration without a single electronic record from the previous administration. Not only were emails and photos removed from the environment at the 12:01pm threshold, data elements like phone numbers of individual offices and upcoming meetings for the senior staff were also removed. This was described by some as a "new inaugural tradition spawned by the Internet-age".^[19]

Current transition

Trump presidential transition website, launched on the evening of November 9, 2016.

Shortly after noon on November 9, 2016, the day after the presidential election, outgoing president Barack Obama made a statement from the Rose Garden of the White House in which he announced that he had spoken, the previous evening, with Donald Trump and formally invited him to the White House the next day, November 10, for discussions to ensure "that there is a successful transition between our presidencies". Obama said he had instructed his staff to "follow the example" of the George W. Bush administration in 2008, whom he said could "not have been more professional or more gracious in making sure we had a smooth transition".^[20]

By that afternoon, a transition website—greatagain.gov—had been launched. The website provided information on transition procedures and information for the media.^[21] The website was later criticized for reposting content originally created by the Partnership for Public Service, however, Partnership CEO Max Stier declined to criticize the use and noted that the organization had been working with the major campaigns on transition planning, explaining that he hoped the group's materials would be "a resource that is used for the betterment of transitions".^[22] Content on the transition website was licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.^[23]

The Trump transition team is led by Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who plans to remain governor of Indiana until his term ends on January 9, 2017.^[24] It has six vice-chairs, including former transition head Chris Christie, Ben Carson, Newt Gingrich, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani and Jeff Sessions.^[25]

List of presidential transitions

There have been 44 presidential transitions since the first, between George Washington and John Adams in the mid-1790s. The most recent and current one began November 9, 2016, following the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States in the 2016 presidential election, and is scheduled to conclude on January 20, 2017, when he is inaugurated into the office.

See also

• Midnight regulations, rules created by an outgoing administration before it leaves office
• Presidential transition of Barack Obama, 2008
• Presidential transition of Donald Trump, 2016
• Planned presidential transition of Hillary Clinton, 2016
• Planned presidential transition of Mitt Romney, 2012

References

External links

• Presidential Transition Directory at the General Services Administration.
• Presidential Transition Guide by The Center For Presidential Transition.