U.S. GOVERNMENT | A resilient balance of institutions
16 January 2009
January 20 Is Moving Day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Scholars, researchers, former staffers offer inside views of the process
Washington — On January 20, more than 1 million people will crowd the National Mall to see Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. Back at the White House, 60 people will face a less public but more foreboding task: the ultimate moving day.
Over the course of six hours — from the time President Bush, President-elect Obama and their families leave for Capitol Hill until the time the Obamas come in from the inaugural parade reviewing stand — the White House staff will transform the residence, getting all of the Bushes’ possessions out and all of the Obamas’ belongings in. All the way in.
Unlike most people, who can leave partially unpacked boxes lying around for weeks after a move, the White House staff leaves no box unpacked and no detail overlooked.
“Their clothes are hung in their closets. Their favorite foods are in the kitchen,” said Gary Walters, who served as chief usher at the White House from 1986 to 2007. “The concept is that the president and his family walk into their home.”
This and other peeks into the presidential transition process were offered at a panel discussion January 15 at the National Archives. The program, titled “White House Transitions: Moving Out/Moving In,” featured former members of the White House staff and presidential administrations, staff of the National Archives, as well as scholars and researchers who have studied the transition process.
Walters explained that for security and privacy reasons, only the White House staff members are permitted to move the belongings of presidents into and out of the executive residence. The Obamas are responsible for getting any furniture they want transported to the White House on inauguration morning, and the staff takes it from there, he said.
The White House staff, which numbers 92 people, stays consistent from presidency to presidency.
RECORDKEEPING
A presidential transition also triggers a massive move of information. Every document relating to the duties of the outgoing administration must be preserved and moved from the White House to the National Archives.
Sharon Fawcett, the assistant archivist for presidential libraries, said the haul of records from the Bush administration is the most the Archives ever has taken. The cache includes literally millions of pages and 100 terabytes (1 terabyte equals 1,000 gigabytes) of electronic documents and digital photos.
How do you move that much material?
Planning is key, Fawcett said. She has already met with members of the Obama transition team about how the new administration will manage its records.
“We begin planning for a transition the day the president moves into office,” she said. “Good records management at the beginning of an administration makes the transition at the move-out much easier.”
When that time comes, Fawcett said, Archives staff members bring “BFDs” (big fat disks) over to the White House servers, download the electronic info, and later load it into the Archives’ electronic records archive. The physical documents are boxed up and also stored at the Archives. The Department of Defense helps the Archives staff with the information-moving process.
The records from the Bush administration will become available to the public in five years — January 20, 2014. Until then, 18 archivists will be going through as many boxes and electronic files as possible, organizing the data.
PEOPLE, POLICIES, PROCESSES
Both of these physical moves take place alongside an overwhelming transition of power at the end of a presidential administration. Roger Porter, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University who previously served in the Ford, Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, said a new president’s success can be traced to getting three “Ps” right during the transition: people, policies and processes.
He said incoming presidents need to get their appointments made early, so they can start working on a policy agenda. They also need to set up the methods by which they will make decisions throughout their presidency. By mid-February, just a few weeks after inauguration, Porter said, a president is expected to go before Congress and outline his plan.
Porter, who’s been involved in five presidential transitions — three in and two out — said a few things about the process always remain true. First, the people of the outgoing administration genuinely want their replacements to do well, and are eager to assist them in getting acclimated.
And second, transitioning in is a lot more fun than transitioning out.
President Bush and his family will get to enjoy the inauguration festivities January 20 while their White House is taken apart by the staff. Once their stuff gets to Texas, the Bushes are on their own.
According to Walters, the former White House usher: “When it gets loaded on the trucks at the south portico, it’s out of my hair.”
