On Nov. 18, the cast of “Hamilton” demonstrated the value and the great difficulty of a transparent presidential transition period.
Quite separate from the content of the comments addressed to Mike Pence, vice president-elect and head of the Trump transition team, sharing them at a sold-out theatrical performance, and inviting the audience to share on social media, is a rarity during this period.
{mosads}Historically, most advice offered to the transition team has been in private meetings and almost always in a secretive fashion. While campaigns occur in public rallies in towns and cities across the country and broadcast on television, transitions center on just a few offices in Washington and New York.
Few federal transparency laws apply to this time period, since members of the incoming administration remain private citizens until the Inauguration. If you wanted to know exactly who advised Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton during their transitions, you’d be hardpressed to find out.
This practice has in the past led to great skepticism about the fairness of the process. Many feared that the secretive nature of the transition would inevitably lead to backroom deal-making and corruption.
Lobbyists might capitalize on campaign contributions with special favors secured in private.
This concern compelled President-elect George H.W. Bush in 1988 to adopt an ethics pledge that all who served on his transition team were compelled to sign and adhere to. The pledge required financial disclosure and a promise not to use inside information for financial gain.
Subsequent presidents-elect followed this precedent, but most continued to focus on this as an internal ethical issue for members of the transition team. Who was providing advice and recommendations external to the transition team remained shrouded in secrecy and an insider’s game.
For those interest groups with close ties to the incoming administration, this proved advantageous, as they could call for just about anything in private without concerns of the wider public finding out.
And for those interest groups with weak ties to the newly-elected president, they had little recourse and few opportunities to offer alternative advice.
Eight years ago, President-elect Obama addressed just this issue. In adopting what his transition team called its “Seat at the Table” policy, anyone who wanted to offer advice was permitted to, so long as he or she shared their advice online. The letters remained publicly available for all to read during and after the transition, a major step toward applying accepted standards of open government to the transition period.
To date, the Trump transition team has not adopted this transparency measure. While they have offered a link at their website to “Tell Us Your Story,” they have not indicated what will be done with that information or whether the stories will soon be shared with the public.
It remains unclear with whom the Trump transition team is meeting and what advice they are getting.
This also throws into doubt a decision that the Trump transition team did take last week to ban registered lobbyists from serving on the transition team.
While several lobbyists have de-registered in order to serve, other lobbyists were not forbidden from meeting with the transition team, providing policy advice or recommending personnel.
As long as registered lobbyists continue to be a primary source of information for the transition team, it may not matter whether or not they are officially members of the team; the influence of money on access will remain the same.
Without robust transparency, public confidence in the transition process will continue to erode and many will question whether the millions of citizens who voted actually have a voice in the next administration.
The “Hamilton” cast showed how the public venue they have been provided can overcome this problem. For the rest of the country, additional steps can be taken to give voice to the diversity of advice, recommendations and concerns held by many.
Brown is assistant professor of public policy at the City University of New York, John Jay College and the Graduate Center. He is the author of “Lobbying the New President: Interests in Transition.”
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