Transition Roundup: Hearing Examines Transition Improvements; Biden Announces More Personnel Picks

December 10, 2020

Congressional overseers have started looking into the presidential transition and how to make transfers of power smoother. During a hearing held by the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations on Thursday, Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, gave the following recommendations for Congress to improve future presidential transitions: clarify the criteria for the General Services Administration ascertaining an apparent winner; provide more early support to presidential candidates; better prepare political appointees; decrease the number of political appointees and those that require Senate confirmation; reduce the paperwork burden for appointees; modernize the Plum Book; protect against improper “burrowing in;” block Schedule F; update the Federal Vacancies Reform Act; and help shape the president’s management agenda.