Biden Administration Plans for Potential Presidential Transition

On Friday, President Joe Biden’s administration formally began preparations for a prospective presidential transition, with the goal of ensuring government continuity regardless of the outcome of November’s general election.

Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote memorandum to all executive departments and agencies instructing them to designate a focal person for transition preparation by May 3. It’s the standard initial step in congressionally mandated presidential transition planning.

Next week, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, who also chaired Biden’s 2020 transition effort, will lead the first meeting of the White House Transition Coordinating Council, which is made up of senior White House policy, national security, and management officials as required by the Presidential Transition Act.

The act gives government assistance to major party candidates in preparing to govern so that they can have personnel in place to implement policy initiatives on their first day in office.

Biden’s plan for a handover

Making sure presidential candidates are prepared to take over the federal government became a higher priority following the 9/11 attacks, and the act has been updated several times since then to provide additional resources to candidates and to require incumbents to plan for a handover with even greater intensity.

Young’s letter is remarkably identical to one delivered by Trump administration acting director Russell Vought four years ago, for a transition process that began well but became disrupted when then-President Donald Trump refused to admit defeat to Biden.

It took until November 23, two weeks after the election, for Trump’s General Services Administration to declare Biden the “apparent winner” of the 2020 contest, a necessary step before the transition could begin.

Inauguration Day

The legislation compels presidential contenders and the General Services Administration to strike an agreement on everything from federal office space to access to sensitive information by September 1, but it is frequently accomplished sooner. Before signing the memorandum of understanding, candidates must formally obtain their party’s nomination at their respective conventions.

Transition teams begin assessing applicants for positions in a future administration, including starting the time-consuming security clearance process for potential appointees who must be ready to assume office on Inauguration Day.

Biden launched a separate task force in February to address the “systemic” problem of mishandling classified information during presidential transitions, just days after a Justice Department special counsel’s sharply critical report revealed that he and his aides had done so when he left the vice presidency in 2016.

Source: Yahoo News