October 13, 2000
Clinton signs
"Presidential Transition Act"
Thompson Bill Will Help New President
Prepare to Lead Nation
Washington, DC -
Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson
(R-TN) today announced President Clinton yesterday signed Thompson’s
legislation which would improve the Presidential transition
process and help new administrations hit the ground running.
"The
Presidential Transition Act will improve the ability of the
President-elect to switch effectively from campaigning to
governing," Senator Thompson said. "The President-elect
must have the ability to immediately put a new team in place and
that team must have access to the critical information it needs to
hit the ground running on inauguration day."
The Presidential
Transitions Act:
1) Provides for
briefings and orientations of those individuals the
President-elect intends to nominate to senior executive branch
positions.
2) Requires the
compilation of a "transitions directory" to provide
senior White House staff and prospective appointees with key
agency and administrative information, and;
3) Requires the
Office of Government Ethics to prepare a report identifying
unnecessary reporting and disclosure requirements placed on
Executive Branch nominees.
The Treasury/Postal
appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2001 includes $1 million for
implementation of this legislation. The Presidential Transitions
Act, passed as H.R. 4931, is identical to S. 2705, legislation
introduced by Thompson and Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and
approved by the Governmental Affairs Committee on June 8, 2000.
That measure was built on legislation introduced by Rep. Steve
Horn (R-CA).
The need for an
effective presidential transition and the recognized problems with
past transitions have led a number of private sector organizations
to focus on the transition process. Several programs, including
the Presidential Appointee Initiative of the Brookings
Institution, Transition to Governing Project of the American
Enterprise Institute and Brookings, and the Heritage Foundation's
Mandate for Leadership 2000, have contributed to consideration of
this problem. These groups and others are independently preparing
a body of information that will assist new administrations in
getting off to an effective, timely start.
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