OPM Issues Presidential Transition Guide for 2020 Election
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently released a Presidential Transition Guide to ensure the smooth transition of responsibilities between the outgoing Trump administration and the incoming Biden administration. OPM’s responsibilities during a transition include ensuring the efficient departure of current political appointees and arrival of new ones, submitting a list of presidential appointments to candidates, and making updates to the Plum Book.
According to OPM, the guide, “Provides any incoming or second-term Administration and agency officials who have transition responsibilities, with a detailed description of the various rules, regulations, and policies that govern the establishment of transition teams, the departure and appointment of political appointees, and the treatment of career Federal employees (especially members of the Senior Executive Service) during the transition period.”
The OPM Presidential Transition Guide includes several categories including Standards of Ethical Conduct, Positions and Individuals Subject to Change in a Transition, Appointments, Compensation, Personnel Security Vetting, and Personal Identity Verification.
The first section, Standards of Ethical Conduct, provides guidance on contacts with lobbyists, non-government contacts, post-employment restrictions, and the protection of federal records. Agencies must also appoint a Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO) and an Alternate DAEO to administer the agency’s ethics program. These individuals will be tasked with providing counseling and advisory services, reviewing financial disclosure reports, monitoring administrative actions and sanctions for ethics violations, and communicating with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE).
The OPM Guide’s next section, Positions and Individuals Subject to Change in Transition, provides guidance on positions that are subject to change, the handling of overlapping assignments in government, and assigning federal employees to transition teams.
The third section, Appointments, covers Presidential appointments, Senior Executive Service appointments, and appointments in the excepted service. Presidential appointees may be dismissed at any time, but in certain cases, they may be removed only for cause or at the end of a statutory term of appointment. This section also discusses how to handle a vacant Presidential appointment with Senate confirmation (PAS) position. It delves further into SES positions, SES noncareer/career appointments, and SES limited appointments.
The fourth section, Compensation, provides guidance on basic salary levels, locality pay, aggregate pay limits, and pay flexibilities. The fifth section, Personnel Security Vetting, issues help on vetting the security personnel hired for presidential appointees, political appointees, and those assigned to work on their teams. The final section, Personal Identity Verification, provides guidance on the requirements for issuing appropriate personal Government-issued identity badges to individuals working on Presidential transition teams.
The Partnership for Public Service also issued a presidential transition memo, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a blog post detailing GAO’s resources to ensure a smooth transition. The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) released its Presidential Transition Handbook on the Role of Inspectors General and the Transition to a New Administration to guide Inspectors General through the transition.
