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Planned transitions
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A presidential transition was contingently planned for a potential transition from President Barack Obama to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in accordance with the Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010 and the Presidential Transitions Improvements Act of 2015. Since Clinton lost the 2016 election to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, this transition never went into effect.
In April 2016, representatives of candidates Clinton, Trump, Sanders, John Kasich, and Ted Cruz jointly met with Obama administration officials to discuss the November presidential transition.[1]
On June 3, 2016, the Agency Transition Directors Council first assembled at the White House to review transition plans of each of the major executive departments; neither the Trump nor Clinton campaigns sent representatives to this initial meeting. At about the same time, the White House began transferring the Obama administration's accumulated electronic files to the National Archives and Records Administration's Electronic Record Archive for preservation.[2]
On July 30, 2016, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough spoke with representatives of the Trump and Clinton campaigns to discuss transition arrangements for assuming office in January. McDonough confirmed that the candidates would be eligible for interim national security briefings from the Director of National Intelligence.[3] Clinton's transition team was eligible to use federal workspace in Washington, D.C., and to attend meetings of the White House transition teams.[4] Under the Edward "Ted" Kaufman and Michael Leavitt Presidential Transitions Improvements Act of 2015, both Clinton and Trump's transition teams were granted access to government office space in Washington, D.C. beginning on August 2, 2016.[5] The office space given to each candidates' transition efforts were on different floors of the same building, 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue.[5][6] Government-provided office space for transition planning and security briefings were only given to Clinton and Trump, with third-party candidates such as the Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson being denied these because the General Services Administration did not judge them to have met the requirements to receive these, which included receiving "significant" enough support in polls, "so as to be realistically considered among the principal contenders."[7]
Clinton's transition team was reported to be trying to remain low-key in their operations, so as not to project overconfidence in the prospects of a Clinton victory.[8]
Clinton announced numerous members of her transition team on August 16, 2016, including former Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar as its chair.[9][10] Others on the transition team included: Maggie Williams, Neera Tanden, former National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.[10] Heather Boushey served as the transition team's chief economist.[9] Leah D. Daughtry was tasked with overseeing the transition's personnel department.[11] Carlos Monje would reportedly join the effort, overseeing the agency review teams.[12] Michael Linden would also join, being focused on labor issues.[8] The transition effort would be centered in Washington, D.C., separate from the Clinton campaign operation's location in Brooklyn, New York.[9] The campaign had, per reporting, once considered centering its transition efforts in the same city as its campaign operation, but ultimately decided against this.[6] The transition team's staff in Washington, D.C. was overseen by Ann O'Leary and Ed Meier.[11] Near the end of the campaign, it was reported that Clinton's transition team was significantly smaller in terms of personnel than Trump's was reported to be.[8]
On July 3, 2016 The New York Times reported that Clinton planned for her cabinet to be gender equal, with half of its members being female.[13]
In the closing weeks of the election, Clinton was reported to have been nearing a final decision on top advisors for her potential administration, including who she would name to serve as her White House Chief of Staff.[11] It was also reported that the transition team had already begun vetting prospective nominees for several cabinet positions.[8]
With the refusal of the Supreme Court to hold hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland, there was a chance that Clinton would fill the vacancy that stood on the Supreme Court at the election. This meant that, unusual to a presidency, if elected Clinton's early presidency could not just see her nominate new Executive Branch officials, but could also have seen her nominate a new Supreme Court justice.
From the beginning of her presidential candidacy, Clinton stated that she desired to nominate justices that would overturn the decision in Citizens United v. FEC, a case allowing corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns.[14] Clinton also voiced support for judges who would vote favorably regarding abortion rights, unions, affirmative action, same-sex marriage, and President Obama's Clean Power Plan and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program.[15][16] Clinton also stated that she would look for a nominee who represents the diversity of the country and has professional experience outside of working for large law firms and serving as a judge.[17] Potential nominees listed in August 2016 by the ABA Journal included Cory Booker, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Merrick Garland, Jane L. Kelly, Amy Klobuchar, Lucy H. Koh, Goodwin Liu, Patricia Millett, Jacqueline Nguyen, Sri Srinivasan and Paul J. Watford.[18] Barack Obama's name was also floated.[19]
