PARTNERSHIP FOR PUBLIC SERVICE Center for Presidential Tr ansition The Partnership for Public Service is the only nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to achieving a more effective and innovative government for our country. Not bigger or smaller government, just smarter. We do so by focusing our efforts on improving the leadership capacity of our federal agencies and the systems that support them. The Partnership teams up with federal agencies and other stakeholders to make our government more effective and efficient. 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To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 3 The Research, Discussions and Activities That Informed This Guide 4 About Our Mission 6 TRANSITION OVERVIEW 9 Fundamentals of Getting Organized 9 Responsibilities of the Transition 12 Laying a Strong Foundation 14 Key Transition Milestones 24 BUILDING THE TEAM 41 Key Transition Workstreams 45 Key Transition Leadership Activities 51 PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENTS 63 The Basics of Making Presidential Appointments 64 Major Steps in Personnel Management 68 Vetting and Investigating Presidential Appointees 81 Onboard New Appointees 87 Prepare Cabinet Orientation and Retreat 87 POLICY IMPLEMENTATION 111 Major Activities in Policy Prioritization 114 AGENCY REVIEW 143 Major Steps in the Agency Review Process 146 SUPPORTING THE PRESIDENT-ELECT 183 Fundamentals of the President-elect’s Schedule 183 Major Steps in Presidential Calendar Planning 190 Vice Presidential Personnel and Transition Planning 196 Transition Planning for the First Family 200 SECOND-TERM TRANSITION 205 ROLE OF THE INCUMBENT ADMINISTRATION 215 Major Steps for the Incumbent President 216 CONCLUSION 237 In the 1972 dramatic film “The Candidate,” a dazed U.S. Senator-elect Bill McKay learns he has won a hard-fought election. Turning to his campaign manager, he asks, “So … what do we do now?” This classic fictional scene highlights the real-life difficulty of preparing to govern in the midst of campaigning, and the void that is created if planning does not take place. While planning may be an afterthought in the movies, the consequences in reality are serious and sobering. Preparing to take over the presidency of the United States of America is highly complex and extremely important. Done well, it will set up a new administration for success; done poorly, it will make it difficult for a new administration to recover. Introduction Introduction The purpose of this guide is to share lessons learned from past presidential tran- sitions and to suggest best practices, as well as key choices and decision-points involved in planning for a presidential administration. It is essential to begin tran- sition planning for a first or second term well before Election Day, which requires creating an organization, setting goals and doing the work necessary to achieve those priorities. The primary goals of a transition for a new president include: • Staffing the White House and the Executive Office of the President, develop- ing a functional decision-making process and preparing to assume governing responsibility. • Making more than 4,000 presidential appointments, more than 1,200 of which require Senate confirmation. • Getting up to speed on more than 100 federal agencies and organizing and training leadership teams for each one. • Building a policy platform for the new administration based on campaign promises, and planning executive actions, a management agenda, a budget proposal and potential legislation. • Preparing a 100- to 200-day plan for executing the policies laid out during the campaign to help the new administration get off to a quick start. 3 Presidential Transition Guide • Developing a strategy for communicating with the American people, Congress, the media, political appointees, the federal workforce and other stakeholders. The primary goals of a transition for a second-term president include: • Planning for Cabinet and other high-level personnel changes. • Developing plans for improvements in policymaking, program effectiveness and management practices. • Establishing the second-term agenda and a timetable for action. • Establishing priorities to take advantage of a post-election honeymoon period if one develops. Presidents not only have to make critical leadership appointments across govern- ment and pursue a robust policy agenda, they also have to be fully prepared to han- dle a major crisis at a moment’s notice. President Donald Trump was confronted with an emergency response to three major hurricanes in 2017, as well as escalat- ing tensions over the North Korean nuclear threat. President Barack Obama had to deal with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression upon taking of- fice in 2009, and then with the Boston Marathon bombing just three months into his second term in April 2013. And of course, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred just eight months after President George W. Bush’s inauguration. Can- didates cannot wait until after the election to begin thinking about how they will organize and prepare to deal with such emergencies or the demanding day-to-day requirements of governing. This work must begin in the midst of the presidential campaign so the new administration will be ready to govern on day one, and so that a second-term president will be prepared for a fresh start. The intended audience for this guide includes presidential candidates and their top campaign and transition staff, administrations seeking a second term, outgoing administrations, policymakers invested in the transfer of power, agency officials handling transition planning, outside groups that provide advisory sup- port, the media and the public at large. The pages that follow cover the major activities and phases of a presidential transition, and explain how successful transitions should operate. This guide is not intended as a complete history of past presidential transitions, but it is a living document that will be updated as we learn more about presidential transitions and talk with those who have been involved in the process. Individuals provided information on the basis of non-attribution, and direct quotes have been included with permission. THE RESEARCH, DISCUSSIONS AND ACTIVITIES THAT INFORMED THIS GUIDE The transition work of the Partnership for Public Service over the past decade has been used to develop this guide and improve the presidential transition process. Our work has included: 4 Introduction • Conferences in 2008, 2012 and 2016 at the Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which brought together representatives of federal agencies and members of the major campaigns to discuss transition planning. The 2016 conference included speakers from the 2008 transition team of President Obama and the 2012 team of Republican candidate Mitt Romney, including the chairman of the Romney Readiness Project. Attend- ees included officials from the Republican campaigns of Donald Trump, John Kasich and Ted Cruz, and the Democratic campaigns of Hillary Clin- ton and Bernie Sanders. The Boston Consulting Group helped facilitate the 2012 and 2016 conferences and prepared a wealth of materials relating to the 2016 presidential transition. • Convening three presidential transition roundtable forums in 2016 with members of the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump transition teams to provide information and best practices on preparing to govern and to fa- cilitate a smooth handover of power from the Obama administration to the successful candidate. • Engagement with more than 170 career agency executives from 40 agen- cies during 2016 and 2017 to