Science professors and others around the united states. 1990s for thehe white house interview program. They were trying to develop some institutional memory by talking to people that had various white house death and over time. Staff positions over time. They can find out what happens to staff positions for both parties. Directedolved and is by martha i am a member of the Advisory Board along with other colleagues as well as people like norm ornstein and other people from the larger washington community. Providetry to do is nonpartisan backing for what kinds of things have worked and not worked so well in and around the white house when a new president is getting ready to take over. In 2016 whencase President Trump was coming to office and here in 2020 when the president elect biden is likely coming into office, you speak directly with those campaigns or the Transition Teams . Karen i do not personally. What we do begins well before the candidates campaigns put together the Transition Team. But after each party nominates its candidate. What we make available to transition directors our materials. Many will be Password Protected and not available to the general public. But we try to give them information on various offices in the white house as well as where the executive office of the president is. And to ask people that serve in these positions as well as the briefing essays we have done. Requested with people from Transition Teams. But really, we are a resource for the Transition Teams to work with. Like a hugems undertaking to transition to a new presidency. Scope ofn idea on the the individual agencies that need to be covered. It is a huge undertaking. Starting with personnel, there are over 4000 positions a new includingmay fulfill, 1200 that need to be confirmed by the u. S. Senate. When the president leaves the white house, everything leaves the west wing. Computer hard drives, files, everything. Inauguration, they take everything and reinstall Computer Systems and things like that. So when the new white house emptyshows up, they face rooms, empty computers, and have to start from scratch. What the transition project as well as legislation that has been passed is to try to ease the transition process. The have the trail going back to the nominating convention. That is a point at which, according to federal law, each team serving in the white house and the biden team got access to in safepace, computer telephones. Once President Biden is ascertained to be president elect, it opens up resources for the new president. Karen hultuest is on the white house advisory transition Advisory Board. We are talking about the president ial transition, both current and historical. 202 7488000 free democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. And independence, 202 7488002. What leaves the transition . What leads the transition . Karen what we are hearing about now is the General Services administration. Im using a legal term here, they ascertain who the newly elected president is. What it does is open up Additional Resources for the president elect and the Transition Team. Working with the General Services administration is the office of personnel management, the office of government ethics to make sure the new Transition Team and administration is following ethics tools. According to the law, there is something called the White House Transition Council and executive agencies. These folks have been working since september talking with each other about the next steps of a new transition. The Biden Campaign has been critical of the gsa administrator, Emily W Murphy who is a political appointee of the Trump Administration. The New York Times says miss murphy has the Legal Authority to turn on the transition, releasing 6. 3 million in federal funds budgeted for the effort, making Office Space Available and powering team members to visit offices to request information. But there is no specific provision for when she must act. An ascertainment has not yet been made. She added the gsa and the administrator will continue to abide by fulfill all requirements under the law and adhere to prior precedent established by the Clinton Administration in 2000. What is this ascertainment . Are you familiar with that . Ascertainmentm comes from the statute itself. Thean be thought of of winner of the race is the president elect. What the Trump Administration is doing is using that as precedent, saying that remember in 2000, the year of the hanging theren florida, because was a recount under a great deal of controversy, what was not clear was who the president elect was going to be. Administration decided to not recognize the w bush folks as having won the presidency. They have been steps updated since then. But having said that, it is the case that bill clinton within to george w. Ned up bush and allowed the people to look at some classified briefings so they were not coming in completely cold. Same thingdone the for the biden Transition Team. The what did we learn from 2000 and 2001 experience with george to view bush winning the presidency, his transition delayed by five weeks. Does that affect the appointment of the 4000 appointed positions . Did. yes it especially those that had to be senate confirmed. Undergominees have to thorough background checks by the fbi and a range of others. We should be clear. Nor right now,0 did that mean no transition planning was going on. Theas in 2000 while campaign was going on so that if george w. Bush won, he would be ready to take office on january 20. Late remember back to 2000, we also remember that w bush had a kind of helpful head of the Transition Team while waiting for the results to be issued. Electas Vice President dick cheney that had been chief of staff and the Ford White House and was quite familiar with the rhythms of the federal government. Bidens Transition Team has been working since the spring as well. Cochair of the Transition Team has is ted kaufman who has a history with biden. It was passed in 2015. Host and served in joe bidens seat for a stretch in the u. S. Senate. Karen it was an interim appointment. Exactly. Team has Transition Teams ready. What they are doing is looking at possible nominees for various positions. Presumably, they are looking at getting a white house staff put in order. Soon that they will name a chief of staff or vice President Biden and they continue to do other things. What they cannot do is get what they are unable to do is get access to the various agencies that have in many cases big briefing books ready for the new administration. Those briefing books were due in the fall. They are sitting at the agencies ready to brief the new administration and ready to welcome the Agency Review team, but the teams cannot gain access that vice ascertained president bryden is the president elect. Statutory is the obligation of Government Agencies to prepare for transition . The statuteshat say for Government Agencies is that ,hat is supposed to happen current Government Agencies at the beginning of a president ial Election Year are asked to start planning for the transition. Either the transition to an existing president and the second term or the transition to a new president. Six months out the agencies have to report back on what they are closer afterwe get the candidates are nominated they are also tasked to lead a White House Transition Council and an Agency Review council to develop transition materials and the agencies are bound to do that by law. Hult, a two for karen member of the white live
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