As the 2020 election nears, most Americans do not realize that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will both be running for office and quietly handling the important process that determines the early course of the administration if they win. Candidates do not like to speak publicly about such transition programs since to do so simply smacks of “measuring the drapes” for the White House. No matter where the polls are, the formation of any serious transition effort is critical to governance and to saving lives.
I served on transition teams under Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. However, those transition teams have little in common with what the president elect would face now. This transition cannot afford to follow in the steps of past transitions where the focus has been for filling jobs. This transition has to be linked to preparing for the urgent need to save lives threatened by the coronavirus, to alleviate human suffering and rebuild a battered economy, and to respond to the current yearning for more racial equality and social justice across the country. This could certainly be the most consequential transition since Franklin Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover. There are six principles that this transition must live by if it is to succeed.
First, shift the focus on filling jobs to shaping more advanced and critical policy. Filling jobs is an important but endless time sink. The team should name cabinet secretaries, agency heads, and critical deputies, and pause there. It has to defer such lower cabinet roles and ambassadors for action in the first 100 days, while it concentrates on critical policy. With the past appointees gone, career officials will more than assist the president elect launch his administration until lower cabinet roles are named.
Second, forge a special and robust partnership with Congress. It has to do so in order to solicit ideas and gain critical early support for programs that will have been sketched during the campaign. I am not suggesting having members of Congress on the transition team. But there are some creative ways to enlist more participation from members and staffers with working groups, asking for policy ideas in written form then asking them to review policy proposals so that legislation can then be drafted quickly.
Third, create three task forces across transition team members to develop critical policy on the national issues of fighting the pandemic, reviving the economy, and working for a more equal and just country. These must take priority over all agency efforts given such limited resources of a transition operation. The direction of these three task forces needs to come directly from the president elect and the White House transition team.
Fourth, reach out to many governors and mayors to obtain their ideas on the three policy fronts through a transition office for reaching out to such contacts and seeking advice from these officials. Several states and cities have been the real innovators during the age of Donald Trump, since they are at the forefront of fighting the coronavirus. The president elect would also organize a conference with governors and mayors in early January to discuss the plans for dealing with the crises our country faces.
Fifth, solicit ideas from people around the country. Search for people who have deep expertise and who are innovators in medicine, economics, and social justice matters, whether or not they are seeking jobs. The transition should set up a special office that will facilitate such outreach and ensure that it is done smartly. Past transitions have been inward looking, but this one must search beyond Washington in order for it to succeed.
Sixth, avoid trying to right all of the wrongs by this current administration during the transition effort. There will be more time during the first year in the executive branch to do so in a far more coherent and sensible manner. The transition will create the tone for the next administration. It will be the incubator for its first 100 days in both substance and character.
The temptation to be diverted with critical yet less significant issues and those seeking jobs will be enormous and unrelenting. Only the president and vice president elect can draw the lines for the focus of the transition. It will be their first test at governance and leadership. The people will be watching very carefully. Their fate will be linked to the management of a relatively short and rather obscure process that started during these hot summer months and that will end at noon on a cold winter day.
*Daniel Spiegel is a former ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva for President Clinton and is now an attorney who practices law in Washington.
August 28, 2020
