Election snafu doesn't stop GSA's transition team

Amid this week's election chaos, the General Services Administration's presidential transition team stands ready to help the next batch of political appointees get accustomed to life in the executive branch and the nation's capital.

GSA's transition support office-which provides office space, furnishings, equipment and other services to the new administration-is prepared to move full speed ahead with the transition, whenever the new president is named.

"We're ready to go whenever they're ready," said Thurman M. Davis, deputy administrator of GSA. "We're taking this opportunity [the election delay] to do some additional polishing up, but the delay doesn't affect us at all."

The transition team is made up of GSA career civil servants who have prior experience with transitions.

Since the 1964 Presidential Transition Act, GSA has provided the new administration with office space, telephones and all other logistical support. The 2000 Presidential Transition Act, passed in October, allocates more than $5 million for the transition and expands GSA's role in it. GSA will publish a transition directory with information on each agency, and will help arrange briefings and furnish appointees with information on topics such as ethics and financial disclosure regulations.

Davis said each appointee will receive a map of Washington, D.C., information on the city and a lunch box containing basic office supplies.

The transition headquarters, at 1800 G Street N.W., has office space to accommodate more than 300 people.