Comments for 2008 Presidential Transition Initiative

Comment on Obama Transition Director? by John Kamensky

John Kamensky — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:17:58 +0000

Hi Scot - In the past, news about pre-convention transition planning teams were seen as presumptuous. Your observation that Senator Obama (and possibly by inference, Senator McCain) are behind in planning efforts may be correct, but it also may be that more public knowledge about such efforts may be seen as prudent, not presumptuous in today’s climate when the transition will occur at a point in time where our country’s at war and the next president will face a need to act quickly on a budget, a policy agenda, and a staffing challenge all at once.

Comment on Obama Transition Director? by Scot Faulkner

Scot Faulkner — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:25:27 +0000

Obama is actually behind schedule. Ronald Reagan tasked Ed Meese with transition planning on November 13, 1979. Meese completed a draft transition plan with Penn James in March 1980. Transition Planning was well underway by the end of the GOP Convention on July 17, 1980.

A successful transition requires substantial planning. It is unfortunate that this leaked out as it should remain behind the scenes.

Comment on Beyond Tinkering by Dejan Stamenkovic

Dejan Stamenkovic — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:31:29 +0000

I completely agree with Mr. Norman M. Macdonald.

Comment on Transition Planning at Homeland Security by John Kamensky

John Kamensky — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:32:56 +0000

Kyle — You’re right. In fact Dr. Martha Kumar’s advice to candidates’ pre-election teams is to start compiling a list of the incumbent president’s commitments that will come due in the next president’s term. . . especially those that could have an impact in the first year. Historically, that’s largely been done via administrative or regulatory actions. President Bush’s chief of staff has sent a memo to agencies telling them to not issue “midnight regulations,” those regs that are implemented in the last remaining weeks of an administration. However, keeping an eye on things probably isn’t a bad idea.

The Congress sometimes adds to that agenda, as well. The new GI Bill provision has a timetable that will affect the next president’s agenda at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. There are other legislative provisions that have deadlines in the first few months of the next president’s administration, as well. The biggest challenge, however, may be the fiscal year 2009 budget — to take effect this October 1st — may not be enacted and that could cause a sense of crisis (or opportunity) when the next president takes office.

Comment on Transition Planning at Homeland Security by Kyle Stone

Kyle Stone — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:20:00 +0000

Is it not the case that there are several quite recent developments which make the transitioning presidency more burdensome that it has to be - including certain provisions awarded to Iraq which are quite difficult to reverse? It’s not that the GI Bill isn’t an extremely important provision to award to our soldiers, it’s the fact that the Bush administration won’t be counter-budgeting heavyweight bills such as this - the next administration will be.

~Kyle, GovCentral.com

Comment on A Human Capital Agenda by Giora Hadar

Giora Hadar — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:21:22 +0000

The next president will also face two other issues - (1) the knowledge drain caused by the coming federal employees retirement tsunami and (2) the multi-generational workforce. The impending departure of the war generation and the early boomers necessitates a policy of capturing their tacit knowledge, codifying it, and making it available to their replacements.

The next president will also have to identify incentives for agencies’ officials to cater to the generation Y youngsters who grew up with collaboration in their DNA, use on-line chat, refrain from using email, and are comfortable with displaying their inner thoughts publicly. If we don’t cater to them, they will go elsewhere and the government will not be able to meet its recruitment requirements. One way to do this maybe through the aggressive embrace of Web 2.0 technologies throughout the federal sector.

Comment on Fixing the Nomination and Confirmation Process: Part II by John Kamensky

John Kamensky — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:36:59 +0000

Good question, Norm. I don’t know. Do any other readers have some background on this?

Comment on Fixing the Nomination and Confirmation Process: Part II by Norman M. Macdonald

Norman M. Macdonald — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:11:33 +0000

I wonder why an initiative as intelligent as the Brookings Presidential Appointee Initiative was allowed to wither in the Senate?

Comment on White House Transition Project — Update by Gentlewoman

Gentlewoman — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:52:19 +0000

Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation Anyway … nice blog to visit.

cheers, Gentlewoman
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Comment on White House Transition Project — Update by John Kamensky

John Kamensky — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:16:22 +0000

Dr. Korkisch — Thanks! Glad this blog is a useful resource in academia. Hope it’s seen the same by practitioners!