Transcripts For CSPAN National Press Foundation Hosts Discussion On Presidential Transitions 20161108

And to experts talking about the revolving door issue. What we are trying to help you figure out is what happens when you wake up on a cold day in january and all of your sources are gone. For reporters, that is what today is about. Strategies on how you can prepare for, what stories you should be looking for, how you build new sources in the new the storieson and you want to do like the old standby stories. For the politicians and the administration it is a matter of efficiency and speed in getting the president s new agenda enacted. These are some numbers from the center for president ial transition. A new administration is likely to get its appointees confirmed fastest in the first year of its men of its administration. It has 73 days to do so. Bywants to get them in place the start and there is 4000 president ial appointees to try to get through the process. That is what we will be talking about today, our three experts, the director of the center for president ial transition of the partnership for Public Service, he will tell you what pivotal role they are laying in the transition this year for both potential administrations. Anita mcbride, executive in residence at the center for congressional and president ial studies at the school of look affairs at American University and a veteran of of incoming and outgoing transitions with the reagan, george h. W. Bush and george w. Bush administrations. Gulfston. Lston veteran of the bill clinton transition process. The first session is 75 minutes. Each of them will give a brief review of some of the most important things they see and they have experience in their transition and then we will aim 30 five minutes of q a because that is what most of you want to do. We will start with david. David thank you. Appreciate your time. Were talking about president ial transition. I want to take a quick step, understand the sheer scope and magnitude of what we are talking about. There are 4000 appointments, generally not a lot of experience in this process, there are a lot of folks coming in. What is has happened is this is a reinvent the wheel exercise, a groundhog day exercise that every incoming team is going through. Not only is it big and complicated, it is also a time of vulnerability for the country. By and large, the white house is virtually empty, the original files are virtually gone. There are no hard drives or they wiped hard drives for the incoming team and the have not there is really an interesting time around the inauguration where it is very vulnerable for the country as well. No incoming president really has done this very well. Because it is exercise this is the first time you have seen both teams planning to separate early. Because of the legislation that has passed, they have space and logistics provided by the government. This is the second time we have seen that, governor romney did it for years ago and he went to town on it, he had several hundred people preelection focused on this. This is this whole thing is one big epic corporate takeover. The big difference is 4000, 4000 of your top people quit in the same hour. You get no Due Diligence so you do not know what you have bought into you have after late the election. To 12 month process, you have ceo succession plans and you review the financial statements. There is virtually nothing and there is an opportunity to do so much better. Every president coming in nearly a year after they have been elected are getting less than one third of people in office, they are not getting their top people in place, even today in the federal government, this is not only president obama to this is every modern president. One in five senior positions are vague and so about point percent. Compared to the private sector where it is 4 or 5 . We have to ask yourselves why, what is happening, why is it taking so long, why are there these senior vacancies and we found couple of things. These teams are not starting early enough. They are not managing this process strategically area that is why we feel if these teams take a step back, this is one of the greatest opportunities to make government more effective. It is the only time in these teams can understand how they want their government to work. It is very difficult once you are in office. Research and interviews show once you are in the presidency you are hit with unforeseen occurrences all the time. This is that time they have to maximize. They historically have not gotten their people through and want you are in office you cannot catch up. That is why youre seeing these type of vacancy rates that we see out there now. Promise campaign perspective, we are in the midst of a few days left, of the silly season of the campaign, they are making campaign promises, transition is what connects those. They will develop the teams now or developing 100 day plans or 200 day plans, the king about their campaign promises, how do you execute them within the federal environment, this is an externally complicated business that is the u. S. Federal government, the largest, most complex and powerful entity owners. If you want to keep the scent desk country safe and prosperous, these teams have to start now. , this ist afford it why the Bush Administration started early. That is pretty much what i wanted to leave you with. Where part of the partnership for Public Service and we are committed to making government more effective. We are nonprofits nonpartisan and nonprofit. In april we convened all five Senior Campaign officials, the candidates who are still in office, we hold them offsite to talk about governing the country. It is the first time we have seen that this early. As an american, super proud to see a safe, nonpartisan environment where these teams could talk about governing this entity which is the u. S. Federal government. We have been working closely with the teams, they are committed to the effective transition which is exciting and the understand the importance of governing this country. Thank you, that really helped to frame things. I will talk a little bit more from the practitioner. I want to pick up on something that sandy mentioned, you never know who your source is going to be for information. Clear. S in 1994 when congress split from democrat to republican almost after 50 years, people who are in the opposition working behind the scenes that could be in leadership at some point. It is important to be cultivating those relationships. Particular went it comes to transitions, who is going to be in the position of overseeing the nominations process for any Senate Confirmed appointment because they could be the stumbling block to the nominations of a president elect or they can be a real help. That is a good example of knowing who is on the hill. Thank you for inviting me to participate. I want to focus on a couple of key areas. What role does the Outgoing Administration play in ensuring that there is a smooth transfer of power. My answer to that is it lays the most Important Role because they set the tone, the outgoing president and his team will set the tone on how the transition is viewed, viewed by the American Public, about how the transition is handled by the incoming team as well. We will take a lot from the First Encounter that the president elect and the outgoing president have. Particularly if it is a dramatic trump winsdonald given all the rhetoric that has happened in this campaign. That will be a moment that everyone will have eyes on an will set the tone for what may happen. It has been such a visceral election. These are two people that know each other, he is campaigning for her, my assumption is all of and resources that the Outgoing Team can provide will be there and that the tone will be set very early as a positive one. The role of an Outgoing Administration ensuring a smooth transition is setting the tone, it is really important that the president do that and do that well. By extension, that they give direction to all of their staff not only in the white house but to the departments and agencies as well. Been and transparent open and transparent in providing the information that an incoming team would know. What are the greatest obstacles for an incoming Team Customer greatest obstacle is they do not know what they do not know. Particularly if it is a trump peoplency, how do these because this has been an election aced on dramatic change and overhauling the government, from top to bottom. The anticipation that people want to come in and blow the whole thing up is probably pretty highly likely. Are my what tone is going to be set by the incoming team, how open are they or it is extremely complex, trillions of dollars, thousands of people are my what tone is going to bework, hundreds of thousandf people work in these federal iraqis. Decisions000 pivotal to put in there to run the government the way you want it to be run. Having good people on their Transition Teams which are in place now to understand what is happening in the agencies, what are some of the things that are on the table, what are some of the things in the hopper that regulation orugh policies are getting ready to do and how is that different from what you have campaigned on, what you have promised to do and the personnel that you need to select and be ready to go in at the end of that 73 days to execute on what the electorate has asked you to do. How has the transition process improved or changed western mark you heard cliff mention about the transition of 2000. That is one that no future president should ever experience. Was st9 11 world, it it would certainly put any white house and the American People by extension at great risk. You think about the number of days we did not know who was going to be president of the United States, the decision was not made until december 12 of 2000. There could be no official transition process. There could be no official conversation between an Outgoing Administration and the incoming team. George w. Bush, the president elect, i cannot even say that. They Bush Campaign team was operating in arlington, virginia. Byoffices that were acquired ,ick cheney, the candidate acquired by him and paid for privately. There were no government resources. People like me who had worked in previous transitions work were called in, i was never expecting to go back to, into the government. I had my time working for Ronald Reagan and george h. W. Bush and i had been in administration. I understood how the process worked, i know how to offload people, how to onboard people and the critical connection between security and Personnel Management and administration. I was asked to come help and it was a very dramatically different experience because you were kind of operating in the shadows, you are trying to be ready and have anxiety to go if the decision was going to be tot it was george w. Bush become president of the United States. If you did not, then all those resources just collapsed. The private money had to be raised to make those offices available. Once the decision was made by the supreme court, then all of these assets and resources within the General Services administration, all the things that are provided by the government could kick in and you had a very quick turnaround to move into transition space which is downtown closer to the white house and you could get to have conversations. The conversations you could imagine or not all that easy. That was a very tense time. There was a call in question particularly by Vice President gore that this was really the right decision. It was, there were personal tensions but nonetheless, the process worked. There was a transfer of power that all of us expect and americans are entitled to have once the Campaign Rhetoric is over in the business of governing begins. That is that was a very illustrative experience for george w. Bush and for a lot of us on the team. Basically with the underlying premise for him, for any future president , president elect should not face a transition like that. It was not the way we should be doing business. We learned from that. And of course, paying that came 9 11. The stakes were even so much higher in a transfer of power. In late 2007, early 2008, president George Dubya Bush executed george w. Framework,to put a an early framework around having conversations between the Outgoing Administration and whoever the incoming team maybe. Whats that look right . Every department and agency and every White House Office was charged with putting together all welltion, with what you can expect, what are some of the things that this particular was chief of staff to laura bush, the first lady. One of the what are the things that you can anticipate . That was done for every Single Office so there was a hands off of excellently documented information that provided a template and a framework that we still are using until today. What also opened up an opportunity for, once there was the decision, november 6 and 2000, an early meeting between barack obama and george to be bush and we began to have conversations with incoming teams that have been named by president obama. Iny came in and met with us our offices in the white house and began to have an exchange. It was a very dramatically different experience than 2000 was where we could not talk to anyone. We cannot have to anyone openly. Despite how the outgoing tina fey have felt emotionally about losing their jobs, not knowing what they were going to do, this was what they were charged to do, to make sure that there was a smooth transfer of power, that they give confidence to the American People that despite the rhetoric of the campaign which was pretty visceral back then as well. That things were going to move on and move on well. That allowed the president when one to known day what would be on his desk digitally from a National Security point of view. There were tabletop exercises that had taken place between the National Security team securityk obama. That was really important. Again, post 9 11 world, the stakes are very different. The fact that we were a nation at war into theaters of war seriousre the fact that deliberations, conversations had to take lace. The other last thing i will leave you with before my time is of not only is the business government being transferred and the personnel that has to be put in place to execute the policies of the new president but there is also a change in the residence of the white house. A new first family coming in, the first family going out. There is a lot that goes on to make that happen smoothly and to make that comfortable for the new first family and not to be diminished because the white house and its setting is the stage for our diplomacy and it is a stage for the business of our government on a daytoday basis. That has to be a smooth transfer as well. There are 94 people on the white house staff that Serve Administration to administration that make that happen. Thank you. If you could talk about your experience and the research you have done on transitions since you were in one yourself. Sure. I am going to adopt the perspective that i know best witches of an Incoming Administration. You just heard a very full explication of what things look like from the standpoint of an Outgoing Administration. From the standpoint of an Incoming Administration, a transition is a discrete series of tasks and each of those tasks ,an be executed well or badly and people like you would be watching and making judgments about thele day competence or lack of confidence of the incoming team. One is the selection of the and i want toaff underscore at this point, for the First Six Months in the new administration, the white house. S the locus of action the white house staff is the locus of action. Organizedwever well the nomination and confirmation process is, it is in the nature of things, slow. The departments and agencies are not going to be up to full strength and will not be operating at full speed. So the white house is more important in the First Six Months than it ever is again. The white house staff has to be appointed first and it has to be appointed quickly. Here is a rule of some for covering a transition. If the transition is doing its job well, almost all the white house staff will have been named by thanksgiving. The transition that i was involved in, the clinton backwards,got it spent almost two months focused on the cabinet and the white house was almost an afterthought. I speak from personal experience because i got a call to come down to little rock on january 10. I was a professor at the myversity of maryland and sold were typed and the students had registered for my courses, andooks had been ordered a funny thing happened on the way to the spring semester, it was interesting experience for me and totally unexpected. I would not recommend it as Standard Operating Procedure for president ial transition. Of the people who are going to be selected for the white house staff, keep your eyes focused first of all on the chief of staff. Who will the chief of staff be . Secondly, the personnel director. That is going to be a huge locus of action early on. If the personnel director is someone with experience and if the president ial transition gives the incoming personnel director the human power and the resources to do that job on multiple fronts, then you are setting the stage for a reasonably wellorganized and oral orderly process. If the personnel director is not given enough help and he or she has to function as one an old boss of mine once called a one armed paper hanger, then disaster is around the corner. And finally, the person who is in charge of organizing directing scheduling for the incoming president , get those three things right and the odds are that the transition is going to go reasonably smoothly. Then, of course, comes the senate confirmable positions. You have heard the number 4000, that is true but there are a handful that are incomparably more important than all the rest. Focusing on the cabinet and key subcabinet posts, your cabinet ought to be named before christmas. Followresting story to is the perennial question of who gets to choose the subcabinet and you can tell a lot about an Incoming Administration from the degrees of freedom and discretion that the nominated cabinet officials are being theirto help select immediate subordinates. Highly centralized white houses with lots of political debts to fill. Frequently try to take as many of those decisions into the white house is possible, not dispersing to the incoming cabinet officers. There are various points in between. Jimmy carter gave his cabinet officials Carte Blanche to select their immediate subordinates, that did not work out so well. There are various ways of trying to slip the difference but that is a big story. Here is a third interesting story for the cabinet. President elect and has the chief of staff of the senior advisory to the president given teams ofht to the way people who are working on similar overlapping issues will Work Together because if your treasury secretary does not get along with the director of the National Economic council and , ordirector of omg, omd state andcretary of the secretary [indiscernible] other, thed each third job, the substantive beginning of the administration. You have made hundreds of promises. Things, thee of band width of a white houses nero, the bandwidth of a congress is narrow. What are the legislative agenda items that you will focus on in the First Six Months . You must make that decision early. And then you must organize the issue teams and the political teams during the transition to begin to execute those top that is a veryte interesting political story during the transition because especially if you have made thomases on many fronts in my you have not focused her campaign on just a handful of key issues but have made in effect entered into transactions with a number of different groups that make up your base. Lots of people will be disappointed. How are you going to handle that . That is an agenda issue and a political question. It is not all legislative. During the transition, a separate team will be [indiscernible] that is something under the president s control. You can set a tone by determining which executive orders are going to be signed and made public on the first day of the administration, it makes a difference. Are you going to dump them all at once or are you going to release them like time release capsules day by day so that people like you have something to write about every day . There is an art to dribbling out decisions sets that the ones that matter get their day in the sun. As part of the substantive preparation for the administration, and keep your eye on this one, too. There needs to be coordination between the issues agenda and budget development. An incoming president s key legislative proposals will have fiscal consequences and believe me, if those consequences are not factored into the budget, then no one on capitol hill is going to take them seriously. Let me tell you a war story from the first month of the clinton administration. One of bill clintons key , probably theses most important one was to end welfare as we now know it. Theyre going to be substantial, ongoing transition expenses connected to the fulfillment of that promise. There was a humongous fight as to whether that money was going ,o be slotted into a budget which was by president ial decision early on going to be an austere budget to bring down the deficit, reduce longterm interest rates, encourage business confidence, etc. , not a typical decision for an incoming president and not a universally popular decision. Is there going to be a provision made within that austere framework for the 5 billion annually that is needed to fund [inaudible] in the answer was no. Everybody who understood the process understood that whatever was going to happen in year one, welfare reform was not going to going to be part of the agenda. You demonstrate your seriousness on the substantive by coordinating your budget helmet with your issues develop meant. Resident not, then the president elect can deliver all sorts of ringing speeches about the agenda once the inauguration occurs. Speaking of inaugurations, there plan,inaugural date to andaddress to be drafted, two other key tasks. First of all, congressional engagement and secondly, press relations. And especially if an incoming president is facing divided government. Certainly bemost the case. The next president of the United States will not enjoy the luxury that barack obama had on day one and for the next 13 months. , andol of the white house ample majority of the house of representatives and a 60 vote majority, a filibuster proof majority that held together in the senate, whatever the outcome of this election, the next president will not have that kind of freedom of maneuver and so the ability to establish good relations with the leaders of both Political Parties and the congress will be essential to the agenda, whatever it turns out to be. Any smarty, transition will Pay Attention to the fact that you have stories to write. And you will have stories to write every day. What are you going to be writing about . Trust me. If the transition does not think through the answer to that question, he will try to come up with answers on your own. Our that you, with the answers that you come up with our not as helpful as the answers the Transition Team might come up with. The Transition Team, if it is smart, can give you something on the issue front, the personnel front, or the scheduling front to write about every day, fob some cocktail. Preferably some cocktail. Those are the benchmarks you can use to gauge the competence of an Incoming Administration. I can spend a lot of time giving this template i have just issued tasks talking about what the clinton transition got right and got wrong but rather than telling war stories, let me stop now tasks talking about what the clinton and if youre intern any of them, that is what the q a session is for. Thank you. We love war stories. I want you to think of your best war stories. I was asked a couple of questions and i will turn it over for the full q a. I am told you could give us a youe of your center, when actually got started. Some legislation that passed in the last six years that has released money toward the transition efforts. Modernhave to know that transitions are completely different than they were years ago. It is a totally new legislative environment and mandate that these teams have through congress to plan. One of them was passed in 2010. This was the law that moved Government Support earlier. To meet the point historically, it was election day, you looked around and try to acquire resources from the government. That kicks in at convention time. This is only the second time in history we have seen early gsa. Rt provided by the this provides a mandate and some safe space for the teams to plan out and rethink how these transitions are done. These,have looked at they are completely different. They are slating larger numbers of candidates and we have ever seen before and they are thinking through very creatively the campaign process. They will have in place on election day the potential options for candidates and also progressing nicely of their plans. The second piece of legislation is the reduction of the number of Senate Confirmed positions. This number was closer to 1400, now it is 1100 create it was reduced by 169. That helps from a processing standpoint to get your folks through, not as relevant but there are lower numbers of folks that have been taken off. The 1100 number is way too many. These are the policymaking jobs but they are also Good Management jobs in there as well. We would argue that you consider taking them off the list. The third case, there was signed this year by executive order, by president obama to comply with the law. This is the first time the Outgoing Administration has started the coordinating functions this early. They are required by law this year, six months before the election to start the coordinating functions. Years ago. It eight your incoming teams did virtually nothing or if they did something it was the cover of darkness prior to the election, very small, quiet teams focused on just the top. You have seen president obama got seven in by inauguration. Of 1100. Think about the outgoing. You are coming in and leaving or staying. The Outgoing Administration has not participated fully with the has been of there no formal process of planning that we have seen. This is the first time now, the White House Court needing council and an Agency Career Directors Council that has been that is several times with active engagement of the incoming teams. The third piece of transition are folks who are staying through transition, the career civil servants. Every agency has prepared for transition completely differently. Some agencies put together, one put 80,000 pages of briefing materials. Some agencies do very little. Some start a year plus in advance and some do not start until the election. What has been great about this cycle, the administration is committed to much more consistency with agency so there is a standard template every agency is using. Time yourefirst seeing coordination of outgoing and incoming and the folks were staying. That should drastically change how these transitions happen and we should see much better results. Two bills point, we actually think by Inauguration Day or right around Inauguration Day, instead of trickling in your cabinet officials that you can get your top 100 cabinet and subcabinet officials in place. Four years ago, governor romney was on a similar trajectory. That was the intent. You may say it is not possible because you have to go through the senate. All the data shows we have 70 percent of the time getting these evil through is not the senate. It is the Transition Teams finding these people, putting them through the paperwork, this stuff is controllable and they can start now. This should be the new measuring stick for modern transitions and modern presidencies. It is easy to go fast and slow. There is a halo effect to get the men and from the American Public to execute on their your promises. Why waste the first 100 days spinning your wheels when they can be ready on the first day . This is our message for the First Six Months, we have been working very closely with them. We have all been on the phone trying to find these folks that did it 20 years ago. Where going through how we are going through george w. Bushs boxes. We are trying to be there repository of information and best practices connecting people who have done it before with experts to map this whole thing out. If you go to our website, you can see the entire process mapped out and what the teams are to be doing literally today. President ialtransitions. Com. We can do much of better results for the incoming better ability to execute on their promises and much more planning along that inauguration so we can stay safe and prosperous. Host im going to ask one more question and then fwe to the audience. Note that everyone should have a booklet from the center that lays out what hes talking about, thats yours to take home. I want to ask this to all three of you with kind of a subquestion to you, david. The notion of the election being rigged, and the kind of poisonous political atmosphere we have right now what sort of impact is that going to have on transition on both sides if, you know, a huge section of the country is hostile to the outcome of the election, does that what kind of impact does that have here in d. C. . And then also, david, i was hoping you could answer, you know, Donald Trumps campaign has been very hostile to the process in general or the system. Is his team working with well with you all working well with you all, and are the folks working with you the same as we Different Team . Anita ill just very briefly say, reiterate, one thing i said to you initially, the tone that s set by both the person who wins this election, and particularly the person who loses this election, have to set the tone and say they accept the decision of the American People and that theres far more important things now to be focused on. So i think that the tone, particularly, and id like to take some comfort in what governor mike pence said yesterday on the news, that the if donald trump loses this election, they absolutely will accept the decision of the American People. I think that would be an important thing to keep reiterating by that campaign and i think, you know, obviously on the other side too, i would hope that mrs. Clintons team would ay the same thing. Bill i agree with that. Weve seen some interesting debates in this campaign, but the one id like to see is the debate between mike pence and donald trump, starting with syrian policy and ending with the legitimacy of president ial elections, but let me stop there and say that, its not just a question of what the defeated candidate does. Its also what the president elect does. Formerpresident elect is secretary of state hillary clinton, i think she will have a outfrom day one of reaching to the responsible leaders of the Republican Party and emphasize emphasizing that despite the tone and temper of the election, that there are people in washington, starting with the president elect, who are really dedicated to the process of governing the country in the National Interest and who are prepared not to abandon partisanship, but to try to see beyond it where Common Ground exists, where coordinated action is possible. And this election has surprisingly turned up some areas of Common Ground between the Political Parties on key issues, ranging from infrastructure to assistance for families with Young Children who are trying to balance work and family. So the president elect can set a tone, if its secretary of state clinton, not only with very explicit and continuing serious outreach to the leaders of both Political Parties, but also in the selection of key top exs, agenda items to lead off the new administration with. There are some that would be confrontational and others that would tend toward cooperation. Never underestimate the extent to which the Initiative Lies in the hands of the president elect and the Incoming Administration. David so, a couple of things. One is, first of all, weve seen both teams committed to evketive governance in this country and both teams weve begun working with in the april time frame. Both teams are also organized around the key functions of transition, you have a head of transition, you have a head of their agencies and policy implementation focused on their key campaign promises, cataloging them and developing 100 and 200day plans. Weve seen remarkable consistency with both. I think each campaign has their issues and challenges that weve been working with them on. As an american, ive been extremely, extremely pleased that these teams have, at their in their own words, put their swords at the door to talk about governing the most complex country on earth. Job one right now is to win the campaign. They dont want distractions focused on governing the country while trying to run the campaign. I respect that, how they want to release publicly the people that are involved but both teams are staffed up, organized, taking it seriously and at the end of the day well see much better results from both. Driffer we have time for christopher we have time for questions from the audience. Raise your hands and well call on you. Questions out there . So the only the only administrations ive really seen that i remember personally are george w. Bush and barack obama and in both of those administrations you saw Congress Move way away from them, kind of refuse to work with them at a certain point. Does that happen to every administration . And at what point does that usually happen and why . Anita can i comment on that . Really, that was a great question. And youre right. The relations of of course naturally, in 2000 there were a lot of people on the hill who were not happy with the result and there was still calling into question the legitimacy. I think a lot of things changed really after 9 11. The country really did come together, the Congress Really did work well with the president a number of key issues, passing enormous Bipartisan Legislation on emergency plan for aids relief which we havent seen anything to that level up until now. A 15 billion commitment to a single disease. So there were areas of cooperation that were actually very encouraging. I also think what really led to some of this too was the personality driven. Jomplet b. Bush george w. Bush would work with the other side. Ted kennedy was a frequent guest at the white house, nancy pelosi was a frequent guest at the white house. Despite despite public rhetoric there were conversations behind the scenes. Drawing from an example, too, of how Ronald Reagan handled his congressional relations as well, i mean, its very well known, you know, he and tip oneill did not agree on policy but they had a lot of frequent interactions as friends and after hours friends. Those things go a long way in being able to, on key legislative priority, trying to move the marker and trying to get something done. We know the example of course with j. H. W. Bush, he was a creature of george h. W. Bush, he was a creature of congress, he had strong personal relationships on both sides of the aisle. In one key instance, it didnt ay out well for him, when he agreed, a conversation with the hofede the ways and means committee, agreed to ways taxes. George bush made that decision knowing it would cost him the election and it did but it was the right thing to do for the country. So i think there are examples of where a president , again, sets the tone by being willing to take some political risks and develop relationships to get big things done. But i think one of the things that i would say that has been disappointing about president obama, he was a member of the nate and it is pretty well known, reaching across the aisle was not a strong suit of this white house. There was a lot of contentions around Health Care Reform and other issues. But building personal relationships, i think thats an mportant thing to watch for. Too, what is the extension of the olive branch to congress, articularly to the opposition. Bill that said, i agree with all of that but the job of reaching across the aisle is tougher than it used to be because the political system is more polarized than it used to be. The differences between the parties are deeper, more pervasive. Theres less overlap between the parties. When i was the age of people in this room, there were a lot of republicans that were more liberal than a lot of democrats, and more democrats that are more conservative than a lot of republicans. Thats not true anymore. So building Cooperation Across Party Lines is not is going against the grain of some decades of american political history. Thats not to say its mission impossible, but its mission very difficult. The second point id like to make in response to your question, build ogen building on what anita said, is never think that Campaign Rhetoric is irrelevant to governance. The American People are listening, and if you make big, igh profile promises, breaking those promises for whatever reason is enormously politically ostly. And everybody remembers the famous lines that peggy noonan wrote for george h. B. George h. W. Bush, read my lips new york new taxes. People not only read his lips, they heard his voice, loud and clear. There are equivalent problems that an incoming president would 2017. If donald trump decided that maybe the wall wasnt going to be built or that mexico couldnt be forced to pay for it, or if secretary clinton, then president clinton, decided that maybe t. P. P. Was just a fine and dandy agreement after all, there would be hell to pay politically. So big promises matter. Never imagine that they dont. Anita good point. Im hoping you could talk a little bit more about the cabinet member selection process, particularly the lower tiers, so like agriculture, labor, Something Like that, how do they go about sort of compiling a list of potential nominees and then narrowing that down . Anita i think we both can speak to that a little bit but yes, going back to the point, personnel is policy and although these may be considered, you knowing lower tier departments and agencies they are still running huge budgets and lots of services that get delivered out of these agencies. So part of the process going on in both Transition Teams now is candidates, s of people with experience, maybe those who would be new coming from outside the traditional framework but may have skills in managing, you know, huge budgets an huge departments. Theyll go through a vetting process to be which is a much higher threshold, much harder bar to reach now because both campaigns dont want to bring in people with a lot of outside, private sector baggage. Particularly if theyve been lobbyists. So it is a little difficult to have lengthier lists of names that would pass through all these high thresholds of vetting. One place a lot of Transition Teams have looked to are in the states at the executive level. Governors are great for positions like this, particularly governors from farm states for the agriculture position in particular. But theyre going to look for people with experience, perhaps that have had some pass through passed through a public life of their own and come out of it fairly unscathed. David the first question they ought to be asking is what are these roles . Theres not a lot of description what these roles are, so how do you source qualified talent if you dont define the roles. Weve been working on defining what the positions are. Now that they have more time to plan this out, this is only the second time weve seen real, formal efforts starting so early, is that to anina anitas points they may create slates of half a dozen or so names per position, not just critical cabinet but subcabinet positions. They wont even notify the candidate, within one hour they go to the Cocktail Party and let awe their friends know theyre being looked at, so that can create distractions. So theyre quietly putting together names, beginning the vetting process, maybe some financial vet, so right after the lech, right after the election before inauguration has to be tight ming four years ago, we defined a calendar so that the day of the election the vast majority of time is with the president elect making quick digs on the cabinet. Youre presenting them a slate of option, youre presenting them the risks associated with each option, allowing that candidate to make a quick decision. Well see that this cycle as well. Bill i wonder if i can add a referredce both of you to the vetting process, it is extraordinaryly complex, labor intensive, paper intensive and especially at the cabinet and senior subcabinet level is a game for having high stakes. There is a tension between speed on the one hand and avoiding damaging mistakes on the other. Theres no way of relieving that tension. It just is. But if you think if you think of events that rivet press attention early in a new administration or even during a transition and can get a new administration off on the wrong foot, its coming up with a senior appointment that needs to be withdrawn because of some embarrassing revelation that comes out too late. And so, some people inside and outside the transition will be urging the team, put your pedal to the metal we need to get off to a fast start. Others, including those who have been around washington a little longer, have some experience with the amount of e. G. That gets splattered over of egg that gets splattered over a large number of faces when a nomination blows up will say, wait a minute. I was involved after the fact in a high visibility appointment early in the clinton dministration where nobody had bothered to read what the nominee had written on some very important top exs. I was astounded because nominees with long paper trails may very well be saying things that the incoming president does not agree with. The incoming president will then be held responsible for those utterances. At the very least the incoming president is expected to know about that. And you know, and an impression of incompetence is conveyed. So, you know, theres an imperative of speed and theres imperative of accuracy. And theres no way of completely liminating that tension. Whether youre changing Political Parties or not, whats the wisdom of keeping people around in higher levels to carryover from administration to administration . How common is that . I would imagine most people want to clean house for the most part. Do you think thats a good idea, that there should be a Critical Mass left over . Its not common in the white house. Anita it goes to bills earlier point, watch what happens in the white house staff. Thats almost a complete turnover. There are about 450 position, White House Office staff positions, just the White House Office. 60 or 70 of those are political appointments. That really will change. That is the center of the world for an administration. Youre bringing in, you know, people who think like you, are going to take your direction. But there is a functioning burach bureaucracy there as well, civiler is vans that keep the train running on time. Ill turn to david to speak to some of this, because there are positions that will not change, they are career positions that will not change even at the highest levels at departments and agencies. David youve touched on a fundamental difference between a sameparty transeducation and an oppositeparty transition. Th regard to political appointees, the same in a sameparty transition, the incoming president will pay less of a political price, for allowing a certain number of the political appointees from the Previous Administration to hold on to office until the replacement comes forward. And its also the fact that even during opposite party transition, a president elect can make a decision to retain a senior cabinet official from the other party. Bob gates is an excellent example of that. And i think that president obama is pretty pleased he decideded to hold over the sec re he decided to hold over the secretary of defense even though bob gates was certainly no democrat. And so i do think that in this respect, if former secretary clinton is elected, she will face less pressure on the cabinet front because the people who are in cabinet positions now will be reasonably well aligned with her program anyway. They certainly will not be actively obstructing it. So if it takes so it is at least possible that shes not going to ask for mass resignations. I cant speak to that. But she certainly has the option of being much more selective than an incoming President Trump would be able to be. Bill his tore david historically its a friendly or unfriendly takeover concept. In history, though, some of the most difficult transitions have been same parties. Counterintuitive, you think why is that . Because theres an expectation of continuity that historically has never existed. Youre starting to see it now. If this person win, i may be out. History shows that generally the incoming team wants their own people. In this case. So i would expect nothing less, its also interesting though that, the holdover concept that secretary clinton ought to be focused on. For beth teams, there are a couple of nonpolitical, political positions that require all sorts of hoops to jump through to get this person in office. For example, undersecretary of health at the Veterans Affairs office. If you were to let that person go and start the process again, the way that position is set up it will take you two years to fill it if you start it tomorrow. Thats a position. There are positions like that you may want to hold over. Data shows, and this is awful data but its based on interviews an memory, historically youll see a significant senior level stopgap holdover. These positions p may carryover into the administration but temporarily. They wont be permanent holdover. But me speaking personally my advice would be send that letter of resignation out, ensure theres an expectation you wont have a job until january 20. The expectation of continuity, one leg out, one leg in, in my view anyway is not a seamless and smooth way to do it. Anita that request for the letter of resignation needs to come from the current president. From president obama to the directors of agencies to submit their letter of resignation to give maximum flexibility to the incoming president. Bill thats correct. My only point is an incoming president clinton would have substantial latitude to refrain from accepting a large number of letters of resignation in the name of government continuity while the new team is being put n place. Christopher we have about 10 minutes, time for two or three or four questions. Then between sessions we do a quick transition. Ell go over here. My perception of the first clinton transition from talking with my parents and watching old news interviews is the press ended up controlling that transition, for example, kind of refocusing the overall issue agenda on clintons personal character and also more contentious issues like gays in the military, so im curious if that perception matches what who were alive then anita i was in the white house. And also how that affected clintons ability to accomplish other items on his agenda Like Health Care further down the oad. Bill well, the clinton 1992 transition was not a model transition. It was however a useful case study, some would say object lesson. What went wrong during the clinton transition . Well, first of all, as i mentioned earlier, this enormous and lengthy focus on the cabinet with the white house as an afterthought. That was backwards. Secondly, not drawing clear enough distinction between a Campaign Team and a governing team. It is always a mistake to bring your Senior Campaign people, lock, stock, and barrel, into the white house. Third, and this gets to your , the transition and the president elect did not do a good job of controlling the issues anywhere the issues narrative. President president elect clinton on november 16 of 1992, a day that will live in infamy, was actually asked the question, based on what hed said in the campaign, how he intended to handle the issue of gays in the military, and he made the mistake of answering the question extremely forthrightly and not in a very nuanced way he didnt give himself a lot of wiggle room, either substantively or chronologically, and the result was a focus on that issue that was nonstop and relentless because it was an issue that people could understand. Welfare reform was difficult. Gays in the military appeared to be easy. And then, of course, the fact that there had been no coordination with the relevant military leaders led to an enormous pushback and the white house, the white house learned that it was going to take a period of very careful consultation with the military services to get them comfortable even with some version of that idea. And it was by no means clear what version of that idea they were going to get comfortable with. They being the military. Its also the case that in a successful transition, there needs to be one locus of authority. All right. People need to be tapped on the shoulders by the president elect, you are my man or my woman with regard to x. And that is more difficult to do if theres a lot of action in washington and then a lot of action in the president elects hometown. That tension is going to be easier to manage if theres a president elect whose hometown is either washington or within easy hailing distance thereof. But little rock, it turned out to be a world apart. So instead of a circle with a center, it was an ellipse with two foci. I could go on. , t it seems to me that people president president select that are trying to design successful transitions now can learn from those and many other mistakes that we made. Anita having been in the white house in january, 1993, that morning, and waiting even that morning to get lists from the president elect, clintons team of who was going on on the white house staff, people werent even cleared to come into the building. I think part of that too was maybe slower start, not focusing on the white house staff first, was the problem but i also think after 12 years of republicans in the white house, there was an inherent concern about who they could trust that was in the white house to be accepting this information and get even getting people on board. And we saw some years later, there was a real lack of trust of the institutional processes in the white house with the f. B. I. Security files and all these things that were improperly taken. By the clinton team. So there was some of that. In addition to starting late, it was an inherent not understand, not know, not trusting what the institution of the presidency provided to them as well. It was very difficult. 2000 was difficult but 19921993 was pretty bad too. Christopher we only have four more minutes. If you have a question, try to keep it pretty targeted and then for the answers try to keep them pretty targeted. Well go in the way at the back of the room there. I wanted to hear more about the synergy between the Transition Team and the folks folks that will be stepping into the role that you just made a point about trying to keep those separate, im wondering what the transition is thinking. Anita once theyre Transition Team and then david let me distinguish quickly, the Transition Team is one thing and the bill the Transition Team is one thing and the Campaign Team is another thing. There should be work with the Transition Team but not as much with the Campaign Team. David you want to minimize distractions with the campaign. Right after the election, you really have an interesting exercise, the campaign and transition merger between both of those entities. So this is really, this hasnt happened really ever historically where youve had a largescale preelection transition effort with very large, in some cases, Campaign Staff moving into that. This will be the first time and both teams are focused on that, how they i want grate, which positions they have, how you begin to staff up that white house to bills point in that period of time of transition. Hristopher one more question. The number of departments and agencies, e. P. A. , department of energy, to you see where certain positions go unfilled because he doesnt agree with them if he were to be elected . Anita there are a lot of positions unfilled now even though a president may agree with the mission of those agencies, underscoring how difficult it is to get people through a vetting process, whether theyre senateconfirmed or not and how much attention, one of the key positions at the begin who is your head of president ial personnel to mobilize the team to get positions fill. This is not the first time weve heard a candidate say, you know, they want to take down the department of education or take down a particular department. The reality is, that is really, really hard to do. How much emphasis that agency or its mission may have, how much attention it may get, by the president , thats a whole other question but i think this is not a new problem that we have, filling positions at these departments and agencies to execute their mission. Bill i would just add that midwest cabinet departments are established that most cabinet departments are established by congress through statute. These they are not simply creatures of the president. Theyre established by law, there are laws that they are charged with administering, and so an ongoing theres a lot of ongoing business that will and must proceed regardless of the stance that an incoming president takes to the work of that department or agency. So so i wouldnt pay too much attention, Ronald Reagan was, i think, people listening to him in 1980 were sure that the department of education was a goner. Instead, it got stronger under his presidency. He appointed a couple of really good secretaries of education. So go figure. David and both team recognize they have to engage the career work force. Theyll the career work force will execute their mission no matter what. Thats how they view it. They view the career work force as an enabler for their promises and we should see much better conversations with the career work force. Christopher with that, we need to draw this to a close. The press contact or Contact Information for all three expert speakers are on the handout, the bio pact. I think they would welcome contact from you and followup questions. Thank you all very much. Thank you for the time. And so were going to make a very quick transition to the Reporters Panel so were going to add one chair and switch over very quickly. Im the Transition Team. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] cat m turning this over to from roll call, shell introduce he panelists, we have a former paul miller, kimmerly kimberly and a former university of maryland grang watt. Good morning. Im catalina, im happy to be your moderate for moderator for a discussion of how to cover the transitions not