Two New Guides to the Transition

LLRX.com is a great source of legal research guides on a variety of topics. New guides are added on a regular basis, and authors often update their older research guides. Two new guides were posted this weekend. The Government Domain: Tracking the Transition, by Peggy Garvin, brings together a collection of official and unofficial sources of news on the transition. (You didn't expect the President-elect to be leaking the names of possible appointments on his official transition page, did you??) CongressLine: Presidential Patronage, by Paul Jenks, provides some perspective on the recent history of patronage positions, and how they are filled.

The Plum Book

United States Committee on Governmental Affairs and the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform publish the "United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions" (also knows as the Plum Book). This book is published after each presidential election every four years.

This publication contains data on over 7,000 Federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment (e.g., positions such as agency heads and their immediate subordinates, policy executives and advisors, and aides who report to these officials). the duties of many such positions may involve advocacy of Administration policies and programs and the incumbents usually have a close and confidential working relationship with the agency head or other key officials.

According to Wikipedia, the Plum Book is used to identify positions appointed by the president within the Federal Government. The list originated in 1952. When President Eisenhower took office, the Republican Party requested a list of government positions that President Eisenhower could fill. The next edition of the Plum Book appeared in 1960 and has since been published every four years. Older editions of the Plum Book are held in the Federal Depository.

White House Transition Project

Since 1997, the White House Transition Project has combined the efforts of scholars, universities, and policy institutions to smooth out the American presidential transition. WHTP bridges the gaps between the partisan forces engaged in settling elections and the decision processes essential to governing by providing non-partisan information about the challenges of the American presidential transition and the strategies for overcoming those challenges. It provides these and other resources to presidential campaigns, to the president-elect, and to the new administration. These resources include three separate report series providing a White House institutional memory, perspectives on past transitions, and advanced research covering special aspects of transitions and governing. The WHTP also provides unique analysis of the appointments process and a clearinghouse on other transition resources.