With less than two months remaining until his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump has signed an agreement with the Biden White House to facilitate the transition between the incoming and outgoing administrations.
Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, confirmed that now that Trump’s Cabinet nominees have been selected, he is moving into the next phase of the transition. This includes executing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Biden administration to begin preparations for the new administration’s Cabinet, including the deployment of landing teams to federal agencies.
The agreement, which was due by October 1, outlines the transition’s access to federal agencies and includes an ethics code. Additionally, the Trump team had a separate agreement with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) for access to government resources, such as office space and funding, which was also overdue by September 1.
These agreements are required under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 and its amendments. They stipulate that any transition funds, which are a mix of private and federal funds, must be disclosed, with individual contributions capped at $5,000. In the 2020-2021 transition, Congress allocated almost $20 million for the process.
In a statement, Wiles emphasized that Trump’s transition will be fully privately funded to avoid taxpayer costs, and a list of contributors will be disclosed later. The Trump team also announced that it will not utilize government buildings or technology, opting instead for a self-sufficient operation.
The Trump-Vance transition team’s ethics plan was also published on the GSA website, meeting legal requirements for transparency. This includes disclosing any lobbyists or foreign agents on the transition team and ensuring confidentiality of nonpublic government information.
