Transition delay unlikely to hamper federal operations

The delay in the presidential transition most likely will not disrupt business in federal agencies, but could make it difficult for the next President to get a team of political appointees in place in a timely fashion, experts said Wednesday.

During a discussion at the Brookings Institution on how the election deadlock will affect the new administration, Paul C. Light, Brookings' director of governmental studies and senior advisor to its Presidential Appointee Initiative, said the election confusion and delayed transition will not disrupt business in most agencies.

"Focus on performance and keep doing your job," Light advised career employees.

As for the new administration and the next batch of appointees, the delayed transition could have both positive and negative effects, according to two veteran transition planners. "The longer this thing stretches out, the more difficult it will be," said C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel under President George Bush and an adviser to the 1988 Bush transition team.

Gray said the loss of transition time for a new administration during a so-called "unfriendly" takeover can be especially damaging. "The party who has been out of power has to be vetted, and the problem facing Gov. Bush [if he is elected] is getting people into [FBI] clearance," he said.

Mark D. Gearan, president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and former deputy director of President Clinton's transition team, was a little more optimistic, saying the delayed transition may be a blessing in disguise. He said less transition time could eliminate bureaucratic transition teams and help leaders make more organized and expeditious decisions.

"Less transition time might cut down on the politicization of the process," said Gearan.

However, when asked on how the delay in appointments could affect regulatory activities at agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Gearan and Gray agreed that it could have an impact on stopping or accelerating certain regulatory activity.

"The longer the [appointments] process grinds on without putting people in place, the longer it takes to have regulatory impact felt," said Gearan, noting that this would affect the agenda of a Bush administration more so than that of a Gore administration.

Light said if all had run according to schedule, the new administration would likely have had its appointees in place by November 2001. But with the election morass continuing, Light said it could be 2002 before the new administration is fully in place.

Both Bush and Gore have been planning for potential transitions, but only Bush has publicly begun to assemble his team.

Although differing on the impact of the delay on the next administration, both Gray and Gearan agreed that the appointments process needs to be streamlined, and hoped that the present election confusion would lead to more reform.

The Presidential Transition Act of 2000, bipartisan legislation passed in October, gives the General Services Administration a greater role in the transition. The act requires GSA to provide briefings and orientation for political appointees, creates a transitions directory with important agency and administrative information, and requires the Office of Government Ethics to report on burdensome financial disclosure requirements for appointees.

Many good-government groups are also trying to help political appointees make the transition to public service. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think tank, published the book The Keys to a Successful Presidency in August offering advice to presidential hopefuls from dozens of presidential experts ranging from former White House chiefs of staff to former White House personnel directors.

In November, the Presidential Appointee Initiative and the Council for Excellence in Government published A Survivor's Guide for Presidential Nominees, a guide for the newly appointed on everything from filling out forms to handling the media. An excerpt from the guide is available on GovExec.com.