Reform in Washington re Transitions

I was off at another location and the question of Administration Transitions came up. We have, most of us, heard that the Obama Administration got off to a somewhat rocky start in terms of exchanging gifts with our British friends, and they are very special friends.♠

Part of the problem is that under Federal Regulations, everything in the old White House gets boxed up and shipped out.

Thus, there are no standard operating procedures, etc, for the Executive Office of the President, passed on from the previous Administration.  The simple explanation for this state of affairs is that by law (Presidential Records Act), every scrap of paper, every document, every hard drive engaged in a President's tenure gets archived and taken away at the end of an Administration.  The new team literally starts with nothing.  It happened at the start of Bush 43's term as well—it's actually cited in the 9/11 report.  An analogy might be if the new Lowell City mayor, in January, found that the City Manager and the City Council officers all turned over and the new Mayor had to figure out everything he or she had to do from scratch.

I have sent EMails to Representative Niki Tsongas and Senator John Kerry, asking if anything is happening in Congress to resolve this recurring problem.  We will see what we will see, although Senator Kerry did say it would take a few weeks.  I did not send an EMail to the TSW, Mr Kirk.  I expect it would just drop through the crack during the transition.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Contrary to rumors, the President gave the Queen an iPod with Broadway shows loaded.  The Queen is quite keen on Broadway shows.  I think she has excellent taste in music.