Presidential Transitions: The Ultimate Merger and Acquisition

October 29, 2020

American Presidential transitions are uniquely long and complicated. In Great Britain, for example, they happen overnight with only the most senior positions changing hands while a powerful Civil Service keeps the government in operation. By contrast, in the United States leaves a lame-duck President in office for 78 days while the new President must try to fill roughly 4,000 jobs, 1,200 of them requiring Senate confirmation. This is a Herculean task for any incoming Administration. The combination of Covid-19 and the weakening of the federal civil service is likely to be far more difficult for a prospective Biden one, perhaps even the most challenging since 1861.