WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe BidenThe Trump administration on Friday formally began planning a potential presidential transition, with the aim of ensuring continuity of government regardless of the outcome of the November general election.
Shalanda Youngdirector of the Office of Management and Budget, sent memos to all executive departments and agencies directing them to appoint a person responsible for transition planning by May 3. It is the first routine step in the preparation required by Congress for presidential transitions.
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 consists of senior officials from politics, security national and White House management as required by the Presidential Transition Act.
The law provides federal support for major party candidates to prepare to govern so they can have the personnel to take policy action on their first day in office. Ensuring that presidential candidates are ready to take command of the federal government became an increasing priority after the September 11 attacks, and the law has been updated several times since then to provide additional resources to candidates and to require that candidates holders plan a transfer with greater balance. greater intensity.
Young’s letter is almost identical to that sent four years ago by Trump administration acting director Russell Vought for a transition process that began in an orderly but derailed when then-President Donald Trump refused to concede his defeat to Biden. It took until November 23, two weeks after the election was called, for Trump’s General Services Administration to name Biden the “apparent winner” of the 2020 race — a necessary step to begin the transition.
The law requires presidential candidates and the General Services Administration to reach a memorandum of understanding governing everything from the provision of federal office space to access to sensitive documents by September 1, although it is often reached sooner. Candidates must first formally secure their party’s nomination at their conventions before the memorandum of understanding can be signed.
Transition teams begin evaluating candidates for positions in a future administration, including beginning the time-consuming security clearance process for likely appointees who need to be ready to assume their roles on Inauguration Day.
Biden in February released a separate task force aimed at addressing the “systemic” problem of mishandling classified information during presidential transitions, days after a special Justice Department council a sharply critical report said he and his aides did just that when he left the vice presidency in 2016.
