The smooth and collegial transfer of power from one presidential administration to the next is a hallmark of American democracy. And it's always an enormous undertaking and requires hard work and a lot of coordination.
It has probably never been more critical that a transition from an administration, from one to the next, is as seamless as possible. Our nation is at war, we are dealing with a financial crisis, and we are trying to protect ourselves from terrorist attacks.
President Bush directed the White House and the entire administration to be thinking about these issues and to work to ensure that this transition is as smooth as possible.
This morning the President signed an executive order on the presidential transition. It will help coordinate efforts that are already underway. This will ensure the seamless transition that the President has called for. Staff here at the White House and other officials throughout the administration have already been working with transition representatives from the two major party candidates.
The EO released today creates a Transition Coordinating Council, and that will coordinate all of the transition efforts of the agencies. The first meeting of that council will be October 15th, next Wednesday at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
The Transition Coordinating Council includes people with authority and expertise relevant to presidential transitions, and in areas of special focus, including national security, homeland security, and our economy.
I believe it's fair to say that we are doing more than has been done before to prepare. And there are a couple of reasons for that. Things are a little bit different now.
One thing that's different is that we have a Department of Homeland Security that we did not have in 2000. Of course, there wasn't a need for a transition in 2004. Also, in 2004, the Intel Reform Act was passed. And that bill allowed sitting presidents to start working with major party candidates' designees prior to the President-elect being named.
We've been in contact with both candidates' transition teams by phone and in person. That started last summer -- this past summer 2008, to be clear. We've worked to facilitate security clearances for key transitional personnel from both teams. We've worked to establish working groups within the White House and throughout the administration to outline internal roles and responsibilities.
Each agency has been directed by the President to prepare briefing materials. And also, career executives at the agencies have been involved in a range of activities to ensure that they're ready to provide continuity during the transition.
We've provided information to assist in identifying the most important positions to focus on, including details relating to responsibilities as well as the appointment, security clearance, and confirmation processes. Throughout our discussion and efforts,
I would characterize the two candidates' transition teams as being very cooperative in spirit and tone. Each candidate's designees have been treated equitably. All information that is shared with one is shared with the other and at the same time. This is not about politics; this is about doing the very best for our nation. And I'll be happy to answer any questions on it that you have.
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Q On the executive order.
MS. PERINO: Yes.
Q The Department of Homeland Security has been widely criticized for the amount of time it takes to do clearances for classified information -- I mean, for classified positions. Is that one area of focus you're going to have?
MS. PERINO: What we did is we worked with the FBI and we campaigned to -- for -- to establish the security clearance process. I don't believe that we worked with DHS, but I'll -- we'll get back to you if I find that out. And the FBI does a lot of security clearances. Once we connected those two entities -- well, I guess, three entities -- we then backed out of the process. So we're not involved in the clearance process.
We just made sure that they were in communication and that they could start the process so that security clearances could be granted by November 5th.
Q But my understanding sometimes is when an employee comes in or tries to -- hired as a contractor at DHS, even though they have just had classified clearances and investigations, that DHS duplicates the investigation and does it again.
MS. PERINO: Look, I'm not a security clearance expert. What I can tell you is that they work as expeditiously as possible. But these are important positions where people are entrusted with classified information, and the top secrets of the United States of America, and the security of our country is going to be in their hands. So we take it very seriously, and that's why we're trying to get them the clearances that they need so that they can get all the briefings that they need, so that we're not starting from scratch on November 5th, trying to get clearances. We will have them in hand hopefully by November 5th.
