Braxton Taylor
President-elect Trump has reached an agreement with the Biden administration that will allow his teams to deploy throughout federal government, ending a standoff that had blocked official presidential transition efforts taking place.
Transition staff assigned to each agency, known as landing teams or agency review teams, will now physically enter headquarters offices throughout government. Once there, they will meet with assigned career senior executive staff, receive already drafted briefings on agency activities and begin the process of exchanging information about existing projects and future priorities.
By statute, each presidential candidate is urged to sign agreements with the General Services Administration—the agency that manages transition efforts—by Sept. 1 and with the White House by Oct. 1. Trump opted out of both of those memoranda of understanding until Tuesday, when he announced he had reached an agreement with the White House. Trump is notably still refusing to sign an MOU with GSA, meaning his transition team will not have government office space in which it will be based and will not have access to IT services such as official .gov email addresses.
“After completing the selection process of his incoming cabinet, President-elect Trump is entering the next phase of his administration’s transition by executing a memorandum of understanding with President Joe Biden’s White House,” Trump’s White House Chief of Staff-designate Susie Wiles said. “This engagement allows our intended Cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations, including the deployment of landing teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power.”
Lawmakers and good government groups like the Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition have maintained pressure on Trump to engage in official transition activities, warning of dire consequences of refusing to do so. Without establishing relationships at agencies and understanding what their offices were working on, they said, the Trump administration will not be ready to govern on day one upon taking office.
This year now marks the third consecutive presidential election cycle in which transition activities were delayed: in 2016, Trump’s efforts got off to a slow start because his team abandoned its pre-election transition planning efforts. In 2020, Biden’s efforts were delayed because Trump refused to concede the election.
Agencies throughout government are prepared and waiting for Trump’s teams, having completed their briefing materials before the election and designated career staff to aid the landing teams.
In his announcement, Trump’s transition team noted it will not utilize the taxpayer funds set aside for transition activities. It is also skipping many steps embedded in transition law. His team will forgo an ethics agreement with GSA, instead relying on agreements it set up internally that will now be posted to GSA’s website. The president-elect’s team will utilize “existing security and information protections,” which it said would eliminate the need for “additional government and bureaucratic oversight.”
Transition teams typically sign an additional MOU with the Justice Department so the FBI can conduct background checks on potential nominees. Trump has so far sidestepped that process as well. Wyn Hornbuckle, a DOJ spokesperson, said discussions are ongoing regarding that agreement.
“The transition landing teams will quickly integrate directly into federal agencies and departments with access to documents and policy sharing,” the Trump-Vance transition said.
It added it would disclose the landing teams to the Biden administration, but did not say whether it would announce those names publicly.
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