Carrying the Baton: Recommendations for Presidential Transition Teams on Planning for Ongoing Major Investments

The next presidential administration will have the task of managing the implementation of several ongoing major investment initiatives, such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act, which include multi-year funding from Congress and intend to distribute billions of dollars to states, localities, tribes and other organizations. This presents a significant challenge since the next administration will need to take over these programs mid-execution while at the same time set its own priorities for implementation and ensure agencies and the White House are staffed with the expertise needed to carry out those priorities.

These major investments can be complex for the government to manage during the best of times. They involve new program designs, extensive collaboration within and between agencies, different levels of government and the private sector, and require the responsible distribution of significant funding. The work of managing these programs during a change in administrations can create additional complications given that an incoming team may have many competing priorities as well as a short timeframe to prepare for a new term.

Drawing on the work of our Center for Presidential Transition® and ongoing programming providing insights and promising practices for implementation of major investment initiatives, the Partnership for Public Service developed this resource on how transition teams can apply best practices to ensure the next administration is equipped to take over the management of these significant federal investment programs.

Set Clear Priorities

Presidential transition teams operate via well-defined work streams to establish agency, personnel and policy priorities and plans for the incoming administration. Because of their significant scope and scale, major investment initiatives require focused attention from transition teams. Transition teams should follow the practices below to ensure there are clear priorities so the new administration is prepared to take over implementation of these significant programs.

For additional resources on setting priorities during the presidential transition period, visit our Presidential Transition Guide (Chapter 4).

Develop a Plan for Major Investments

As transition policy teams develop plans for an incoming administration, which often focus on the first 100 and 200 days of a term, they should include specific plans related to the implementation of ongoing major investment initiatives, including identifying any personnel, legislative, regulatory or budgetary issues that need to be addressed.

An incoming administration may want to continue implementation decisions made by the previous administration or change how certain programs are run to reflect its own policy, agency and personnel priorities. Even before the election, transition teams should be thinking about how ongoing initiatives interact with the candidate’s platform and develop plans for how they will approach implementation continuity with that in mind. After the election, these plans should be further developed by incorporating additional specifics gathered by agency transition review teams. Plans should also address how incoming political appointees can collaborate with career staff to build on work that has already been implemented.

In developing plans for policy initiatives, there may be an impulse to dismiss rather than reshape the work of the previous administration, particularly one of a different political party. However, automatically doing so can lead to missed opportunities1. The complexity of the current set of major investment programs—with dozens of design choices made for each program and hundreds of programs happening at once—means that simply dismissing the previous work may lead to delays and, in the end, require additional and significant effort. Even if they plan to adjust implementation priorities or policies, transition teams should first use the transition period to understand how major investment implementation is currently being managed, and whether there are successful operational strategies or program design decisions that they would like to carry forward, as well as how they can draw on the experience and expertise of career staff in agencies. After this, decisions to reprioritize, adjust or significantly alter a program may be easier to carry out.

An incoming administration may also be interested in pursuing new large-scale initiatives that they will need to plan for during transition. Preparing for new major investments during the transition period should include extensive planning and consultation with key members of Congress since new initiatives will require legislative approval. For example, during the 2020-2021 transition, Joe Biden’s incoming team began planning its approach to infrastructure and clean energy investments, a priority of the president-elect. The work done during this transition eventually informed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act). The administration was able to quickly get started implementing the law once it was passed because of the preparation work done during the transition.

Take a Cross-Agency View

Historically, federal departments and agencies have been structured to focus on their own specific missions and programs. However, major investments—like many of the challenges our government faces today—are cross-cutting, with multiple agencies working on complementary programs or serving the same communities. Coordination and collaboration between agencies is crucial for the effective implementation of these initiatives. Review teams should identify areas where agencies are already successfully collaborating, the cross-agency forums that support implementation and what challenges currently hinder coordination. These findings can then be applied to plans for supporting what is already working and implementing new solutions to address current challenges.

Determine the Relationship Between the White House and Agencies

Although much of the implementation of major investments rests with agencies, offices within the White House, including key policy councils, play a significant role in setting implementation priorities, coordinating among agencies and approving decisions. In developing plans for ongoing major investments, transition teams should begin laying out a clear strategy for which decisions will be made at the White House level and which will be delegated to agencies. The team also should start to determine review and approval processes for the White House on agency decisions and announcements related to major investments. Determining a clear process during the transition period, particularly if it differs from the outgoing administration’s process, will prevent confusion and delays and enable the new administration to move quickly on implementation once the president-elect takes office.

Focus on Leadership and Staffing

One of the primary responsibilities of transition teams is preparing for the more than 4,000 political appointments an incoming administration must make. Having the right teams in place is crucial for a new administration’s success, including when it comes to major investments. Transition personnel teams should consider these initiatives and necessary program-specific expertise when developing their strategy and identifying potential appointees to lead key priorities.

For additional resources on political appointments, visit our Presidential Transition Guide (Chapter 3).

Consider Major Investment Needs When Planning Political Appointments

In identifying, recruiting and vetting potential political appointees, transition teams should keep in mind the role that particular positions—both within agencies and in the White House—play in major investment implementation and the skills needed for people in those roles to be successful. For example, the CHIPS and Science Act is designed to spur investment in the domestic production of semiconductors. Transition teams may want to consider appointees who will be able to foster strong working relationships with the semiconductor industry, or who have expertise in implementing programs to build manufacturing capacity, for positions overseeing these programs.

Just as they consider which positions need to be most urgently filled to ensure national security, respond to crisis or shepherd other priorities, transition teams also should consider whether appointments to specific positions with responsibility for implementing major investments should be expedited to ensure that work on those initiatives has timely direction from a senior leader.

Transition teams should not only focus on agency appointments affected by major investments but should make sure that they are anticipating the personnel needs within the White House to support effective cross-agency coordination. Planning for implementation resources needed within the White House during transition can help an incoming administration ensure it will be able to provide timely guidance and assistance to agencies from the beginning.

Identify and Consider Retaining Key Personnel

Transition teams often consider whether to retain some appointees from the incumbent administration, particularly in sensitive national security positions, hard-to-fill jobs and roles such as chief financial officers that require specific management competencies2. Similarly, transition teams should identify and consider retaining key leaders who are critical to ongoing major investment implementation to ensure continuity and make use of their expertise.

Plan for Any Anticipated Surge Hiring Needs

Major investments—particularly those involving newly created programs—require existing federal agency capacity to be increased quickly to implement these programs. For example, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration carried out surge hiring efforts to respond to the health and economic crises and implement major legislation such as the CARES Act.

Agency review teams should take note of current agency workforces and whether any surge hiring efforts will be necessary to achieve the incoming administration’s implementation goals—particularly if the administration is considering new major investment legislation—and plan for how incoming agency leaders can work with the Office of Personnel Management, chief human capital officers and HR teams to do so. Transition teams also should create contingency plans for how the administration will pursue major investment implementation if it takes longer than anticipated to staff up.

For additional information on conducting federal surge hiring efforts, including a detailed list of hiring authorities, visit our report, Rapid Reinforcements: Strategies for Federal Surge Hiring.

Prioritize Intergovernmental Relationships and Communication

State, local, tribal and territorial government partners are critical in enabling any administration to implement its agenda across priority areas, particularly for major investment programs where the last stage of program delivery is often outside the scope of the federal government. Transition teams must focus on establishing or renewing relationships with intergovernmental stakeholders at all levels to set the stage for constructive partnerships during the administration.

For additional information on how to use the transition period to help establish intergovernmental relationships, visit The States of our Union report from the Center for Presidential Transition.

For more information on intergovernmental coordination related to major investment implementation, see our list of promising practices.

Use the Transition Period to Initiate Relationships and Create Feedback Loops

During the pre-election transition period, transition teams begin developing detailed plans for executing the administration’s vision, including ways to inform and engage state, local, tribal and territorial entities. Once the outcome of the election is known, the president-elect and the transition team should begin receiving and conducting outreach with key stakeholders.

Incoming administrations should use this outreach to make connections, begin building trust and gather informal feedback from state and local leaders about how implementation of major investment programs has worked thus far, including successes and remaining challenges that can help inform the new administration’s approach. This information can then supplement more formal program feedback data gathered by agencies.

Building these relationships and identifying areas of support during the transition period can help ensure that an administration is ready to hit the ground running on implementation of programs that require significant intergovernmental coordination.

Build an Administration with Intergovernmental Experience

Having personnel with the skills and experience to build successful working relationships with different levels of government is crucial for an incoming administration.

Intergovernmental affairs teams play a crucial role in major investments—sharing the administration’s priorities and communicating stakeholder needs back to those charged with implementation. Transition teams should consider major investments when selecting candidates for intergovernmental affairs roles in the White House and in agencies to make sure that the teams have the expertise and diversity of experience necessary to help advance implementation.

Transition teams also should make sure that candidates for positions with responsibility for implementing major investment initiatives bring a mix of federal, state, local, tribal and territorial knowledge to their roles. Selecting candidates with intergovernmental experience will help ensure that knowledge of the needs of different levels of government is incorporated into implementation decisions.

Rely on Trusted Intermediaries

Major investment programs often rely on trusted intermediaries—such as nonprofits, community organizations and intergovernmental associations like the National Governors Association—to help build relationships with stakeholders and share information about investment opportunities such as grants.

Transition teams should use a similar approach, working with state and local associations and other trusted intermediaries to understand how the incoming administration’s planned approach to major investments aligns or conflicts with the needs of stakeholders such as state and local governments. These organizations—particularly the “Big 7” organizations representing state and local governments3—can also help an incoming administration make connections with intergovernmental partners4.

Among the many priorities and challenges that the next administration will take responsibility for after Inauguration Day 2025 will be the ongoing implementation of several major investment laws such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. The next administration may also choose to pursue additional major investments through work with Congress. Due to the large scale of these initiatives—which involve hundreds of programs and billions of dollars—transition teams should devote focused attention and apply transition best practices such as setting clear priorities, focusing on leadership and staffing and prioritizing intergovernmental relationships and communication.