Trump’s refusal, so far, of transition assistance creates a ‘real risk’ for government continuity

The campaign of former President Donald Trump has missed deadlines to accept assistance from the federal government to prepare for a transition should he win the election, potentially making a change in administration even more stressful for federal employees. 

Each campaign is supposed to execute a memorandum of understanding regarding transition assistance with the General Services Administration by Sept. 1 and with the White House by Oct. 1. GSA’s agreement covers office space and information technology support, while the one for the White House entails transition staffers’ access to federal agency facilities, documents and employees. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign reached an agreement with GSA on Sept. 19, almost three weeks late, and a Biden administration official told Government Executive in a statement that it has entered an MOU with Harris, although such a document has not yet been made public. However her campaign’s accompanying ethics plan for transition team members has been posted. 

The official said that the federal transition coordinator is “actively working with the Trump transition team to complete an MOU.” A GSA spokesperson said that the agency “is prepared to begin providing services to the Trump transition team once an MOU is executed.” 

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment but has previously told Government Executive that it is continuing “to evaluate and communicate with GSA about the options related to the support offered by GSA.” 

It would be challenging for the White House to establish the second agreement with Trump without his first signing GSA’s document, as that agency provides secure networks and .gov email addresses that enable federal employees to safely exchange information with verified individuals. 

“[Agencies] need to plan. There’s a lot of investment that goes in, so the uncertainty of not having those MOUs in place presents a real challenge to them,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, at a press briefing on Monday. “There’s going to be a ton of work that has to be done…the early investment is critical to get it done and not to put even more burden on the career civil servants.” 

PPS, a nonpartisan good government group, hosts a Center for Presidential Transition that provides assistance to campaigns and agencies with respect to changes in administration. 

Valerie Smith Boyd, who leads the PPS Center for Presidential Transition, said the agreement with the White House is necessary for the incoming administration to access the agencies it is about to manage. 

“We have one president at a time. The federal agencies are part of the current administration. And for federal agencies to share information and to meet with a president-elect, it's important to define the terms of where that takes place [and] what type of information may be shared at a high level,” she said. 

While the MOUs are optional, Stier argued they’re “optional at a real risk.” 

“On this proposition [of] ‘we don't trust the government,’ that's a problem, because at the end of the day, if you're running it, you're going to have to be trusting it,” he said. “There may be elements of things that you're concerned about, but you're going to need to engage, and if you don't engage, that really will put our country in jeopardy.”

Boyd did stress that other aspects of transitional planning are moving along. 

The White House set up the Transition Coordinating Council composed of senior Biden administration officials. Both campaigns have named individuals to lead their transition teams. And each agency has named an employee in the career Senior Executive Service as transition director. 

Eric Katz contributed to this report.