Presidential Transition

Preparing to lead the nation, whether as a presidential hopeful or an incumbent seeking a second term, requires extensive planning on personnel, policy, the budget and governance.

This transition work must begin in the midst of the presidential campaign so a new administration will be ready to govern on day one, and so that a second-term president will be prepared for a fresh start.

Managed well, this planning can lead to success. Handled poorly, a president can be susceptible to strategic errors and face difficulty responding to serious national security and domestic challenges.

Center for Presidential Transition

The Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition® is the nation’s premier nonpartisan source of information and resources designed to help presidential candidates and their teams lay the groundwork for a new administration and incumbent presidents prepare for a second term.

The Center provides critical assistance on organizing a presidential transition; helps career officials prepare for incoming leadership; offers guidance to political appointees on unique aspects of government management; promotes transition improvements; and provides guidance on second term planning.

Ready to Govern

Ready to Govern is a series of 90-minute onboarding sessions designed to help incoming political appointees and federal leaders navigate a complex federal organization and succeed in their new roles.

Appointees can participate in up to 11 modules featuring proven content developed from hundreds of conversations with federal leaders. These sessions are led by bipartisan faculty comprised of current or former political appointees and career executives.

Ready to Serve

Our Ready to Serve website is a one-stop-shop that helps candidates seeking all types of presidential appointments evaluate their qualifications and navigate the complex nomination and confirmation processes. The site provides guides, webinars and expert advice from former political appointees on background investigations, completing financial disclosure and ethics forms, the Senate confirmation experience and more.

Political Appointee Tracker

Presidents are required to fill roughly 4,000 politically appointed government positions, including more than 1,200 jobs that require Senate confirmation. Despite the importance of these jobs, there is no up-to-date source of information about who holds these positions, which jobs are vacant or the status of Senate confirmations.

In December 2016, The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service began tracking the status of key management positions to address this problem. Since then, the tracker has shed light on our government’s growing struggle—regardless of which party controls Congress and the White House—to fill key Senate-confirmed positions.

Our data raises public awareness about the critical vacancies that stymy government effectiveness and helps hold elected officials responsible for filling key presidential appointments. We currently track the nomination and confirmation of about 800 of the 1,200 positions requiring Senate confirmation, including Cabinet secretaries, chief financial officers, general counsels, ambassadors and other critical leadership jobs.

Transition Lab

Transition Lab is a 48-episode podcast series offering listeners an in-depth look at presidential transitions. Each episode features prominent guests and covers topics ranging from how our government orchestrates a transfer of power to the most historic handoffs of the American presidency.

Resources